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UGUST 1908 


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EDITOR  AND  PROPRIETO 

ATLANT-A.,    GEORGIA. -« 


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WATSON'S 

Jeffersonian  Magazine 

Vol.  II  AUGUST,    1908  No.  8 

CONTENTS 

FRONTISPIECE 432 

EDITORIALS 433 

Mr.   Brjan's  Shameful   Treatment   of   the  South — Uncle    Remus   is  Dead — The  Old  Packet 
Boat  by  the  James. 

A  SURVEY  OF  THE  WORLD Tom  Dolan 448 

THOS.   E.   WATSON'S   SPEECH    OF   ACCEPTANCE 457 

THE   OPIUM   FIEND— A  Poem' Bishop  Nettles  Alsbrook 471 

WHEN  THE  MILL  SHUTS  DOWN 472 

TO  A  WILD  FLOWER— A  Poem Ada  A.  Mosher 473 

HOW  BRYAN  SCOOPED  THE  INDEPENDENT    ....    Thos.  H.  Tibbies 474 

MY   MISSION— A  Poem Luella  Knott 480 

ZORA   FAIR— A   Short  Story Francis   Maria    Scott 481 

DR.  BEN  REITMAN,  THE  TRAMP  REFORMER    ....  Arnold  M.  Anderson 488 

WHEN   WE   HAVE  SAID   GOOD-BYE— A    Poem Grace    Kirkland 495 

SAY  OF  OTHER   EDITORS 496 

LETTERS  FROM  THE   PEOPLE 500 

BOOK  REVIEWS 502 

AT    NIGHT— A  Poem Mary    Chapin    Smith 506 

Published  Monthly  by 

THOS.  E.  WATSON 

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QUOTH  THE  RAVEN:  "EVERMORE!" 


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Watson's  Jeffersonian  Magazine 

Vol.  II  AUGUST,  1908  No.  8 


Editorials 


MR.  BRYAN'S  SHAMEFUL  TREATMENT 
OF  THE  SOUTH 


Necessary  to  Bryan's  election,  are  242  electoral  votes. 

Of  these,  the  solid  South,  which,  according  to  the  insolent  politi- 
cians of  other  sections,  MUST  vote  the  Democratic  ticket,  even  though 
there  is  a  dead  dog  on  it,  is  confidently  expected  to  furnish  156  votes. 

In  other  words,  Bryan  went  into  the  race,  counting  with  serene 
faith  upon  getting  from  the  Southern  States  nearly  two-thirds  of  the 
votes  he  needed. 

In  the  unruffled  serenity  of  this  serene  faith  of  his,  Bryan  has 
treated  the  South  just  as  if  she  were  not  only  compelled  to  vote  the 
ticket,  even  though  a  dead  dog  were  on  it,  but  has,  herself,  no  greater 
inclination  or  chance  to  resent  insults  and  injustice  than  the  average  dead 
dog  possesses. 

Not  only  has  he  contemptuously  disregarded  her  feelings  by  coming 
to  terms  with  the  negro  leaders,  on  the  Brownsville  affair,  but  he  has 
denied  her  the  poor  honor  of  second  place  on  the  ticket. 

The  South  must  give  the  Peerless  One  nearly  two-thirds  of  his 
requisite  strength;  the  South  is  indispensable  to  the  Peerless  One's  suc- 
cess; from  the  realm  of  the  Lone  Star  to  the  headlands  of  the  Old  North 
State  and  the  blue  summits  of  the  Virginias,  there  isn't  a  single  one  of 
the  Rebel-Yell  states  that  the  Illinois-Nebraska  nominee  can  afford  to 
lose. 

But  what  does  Bryan  give  for  these  votes?  What  does  the  South 
get  for  these  precious  assets?  Nothing,  nothing,  NOTHING, — unless 
you  reckon  as  a  favor  the  slap  in  the  face  which  the  South  got  when 
Bryan  went  over  to  Foraker  on  the  Brownsville  matter. 

Have  we,  in  the  South,  no  man  fit.  to  run  with  Bryan?  Are  we 
so  poor  in  talent  and  character  that  we  can  furnish  no  Democrat  worthy 
to  wear  the  mere  compliment  of  a  vice-presidential  nomination  on  the 
Bryan  ticket?  Is  poor  little  old  Kern,  of  Injyaner,  head  and  shoulders 
above  all  the  bis:  men  of  Dixie? 


434 


WATSON'S  TEFFERSOXIAX  MAGAZINE 


AT   THE   DEMOCRATIC    CONVENTION    OF   1908 

"The  frenzied  IJryanites  attacked  the  Georgia  delegation,  in  frantic  efforts  to  seize  its 
little  banner  of  independence,  while  the  Bryanite  band  played,  with  insulting  iteration, 
'  ^Marching  Through  Georgia.'  " 


EDITORIALS  435 

Even  the  Wall  Street  gang,  wiiich  bought  Parker's  nomination  in 
1904,  gave  the  South  the  second  place  on  the  ticket.  But  now  that 
Bryan  is  despot  of  the  Deniccratic  councils,  the  South  is  treated  like  a 
yellow  cur. 

Where  was  Folk  of  AHssouri;  Glenn  of  North  Carolina;  Broward 
of  Florida ;  Bacon  of  Georgia ;  Comer  of  Alabama ;  Culberson  of  Texas  ? 
Were  none  of  these  good  enough  for  second  place  on  the  ticket?  Why 
wouldn't  Chief  Justice  Walter  Clark,  of  North  Carolina,  have  been  the 
ideal  selection  ?  What  happier  choice  could  have  been  made  than  that 
of  the  blind  Senator  of  Oklahoma? 

Kern  of  Indiana! 

Who  is  Kern,  anyway? 

Where  did  they  dig  him  up  ? 

Bryan  and  Clark,  Bryan  and  Broward,  Bryan  and  Glenn, — any  of 
these  would  sound  sensible,  possible,  comforting  and  sober.  But  Bryan 
and  Kern  reek  of  the  ludicrous,  and  of  Tom  Taggart ;  and  we  cannot 
but  muse  dreamily  on  French  Lick  Springs,  poker  chips,  highballs  and 
cocktails,  and  a  political  pull  based  upon  the  foulest  combination  of  the 
white  tough  and  the  negro  camp-follower, — for  that's  how  Tom  Taggart 
keeps  on  top  in  Indiana. 

To  get  the  benefit  of  the  putrid  combination  between  Taggart  and 
the  negroes,  the  Peerless  One  passed  over  every  statesman  and  scholar 
of  the  South,  and  chose  the  choice  of  the  gambling-hell  man,  Tom  Tag- 
gart. 

In  his  belief  that  the  South  cannot  help  herself,  the  Democratic 
candidate  has  put  her  to  open  shame — has  trampled  upon  her  race-pride, 
and  denied  her  political  rights. 

No  wonder  the  convention,  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  its  master, 
jeered  the  Georgia  delegation,  tried  to  snatch  away  its  flag,  and  insult- 
ingly kept  it  reminded  of  the  Sherman  horrors  by  continuous  playing 
of  "Marching  through  Georgia." 

All  right,  Mr.  Bryan !  You  may  know  my  people  better  than  I 
do.  You  have  seen  them  swallow  many  a  bitter  dose,  labelled  "Dem- 
ocracy." You  are  only  too  well  acquainted  with  the  weakness  of  South- 
ern leadership.  You  have  seen  the  party  lash  drive  the  Southern  people 
into  humiliating  and  degrading  submission, — many  and  many  a  time. 

But,  by  the  splendor  of  God !    I  believe  you've  overdone  it  this  time. 

I  believe  you've  counted  too  strongly  upon  your  "dead  dog"  theory, 
this  time. 

From  the  manner  in  which  she  has  been  treated  by  you,  the  South 
will  at  length  receive  that  electric  shock  which  has  been  needed  to  arouse 
her  to  a  sense  of  her  political  decadence  and  degradation. 

The  South  is  going  to  resent  your    insolence    and    your    injustice, 
Mr.  Bryan. 

The  South  is  going  to  show  you  that  when  the  Democratic  party 
presents  to  her  a  nominee  who  seeks  to  win  the  negro  vote  by  condemn- 
ing President  Roosevelt  in  that  Brownsville  case;  when  the  Democratic 
nominee  shows  so  little  appreciation  of  the  electoral  vote  of  the  South 
that  she  is  not  given  the  second  place  on  the  ticket ;  when  the  Democratic 


436  WATSOX'S  JEFFERSOXIAX  MAGAZIXE 

candidate  practically  says,  "the  South  can't  help  herself, — I'll  treat  her 
just  as  I  please" ;  /  do  believe  that  the  clock  strikes  the  hour  for  Southern 
Independence. 

The  Jeffersonian  means  to  have  it  out  with  you,  j\Ir.  Bryan.  You 
engulfed  the  magnificent  reform  movement  of  1896  in  the  boundless 
selfishness  of  your  personal  ambition.  You  enriched  yourself  by  commer- 
cializing the  political  assets  which  you  had  raided. 

For  eight  years  you  posed  as  a  Populist,  and  you  thus  made  it  im- 
possible for  Populism  to  do  business. 

In  1904,  you  trailed  your  banner  in  the  mire,  and  took  service  with 
the  Pretorian  Band  which  upholds  Wall  Street's  throne.  Ever  since  1904, 
you  have  tacked  and  veered,  backed  and  filled,  doing  your  level  best  to 
soften  the  antagonism  of  capital  without  losing  the  esteem  of  labor, — 
to  enter  the  Paradise  of  Privilege  without  bidding  farewell  to  the  rough 
world  of  Radicalism. 

Since  your  advent  in  1896,  when  as  a  Bland  delegate  you  cunningly 
opened  the  way  to  a  Bryan  nomination,  you  have  boxed  the  compass  of 
political  variation.  Between  the  platform  of  1896,  and  that  upon  which 
you  now  stand,  stretches  a  dreary  desert,  so  far  as  benefit  to  the  people 
are  concerned, — and  a  Canaan  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,  so  far  as 
your  personal  interests  are  involved. 

Yes,  you've  grown  rich  and  strong,  talking  just  enough  Populism 
to  keep  Populists  in  the  ranks  where  your  treacherous  fusion  movement 
of  1896  landed  them. 

And  noiv  you  place  yourself  on  a  platform  and  a  plan  of  campaign 
whose  meaning  is  that  Wall  Street  has  nothing  to  fear  from  your  elec- 
tion, that  even  the  damnable  Aldrich-Vreeland  bill  may  remain  on  the 
statute  book,  that  the  negroes  must  regard  you  as  their  champion,  against 
such  Republicans  as  Roosevelt  and  Taft,  and  that  you  can  afford  to  take 
the  Foraker  position  which  Taft  cannot  take,  and  that  you  can  afford 
to  say  to  the  negroes  what  Taft  refuses  to  say.  YOU  CAN  DO  IT, 
BECAUSE  THE  SOUTH  IS  HELPLESS,  AND  CANNOT  RE- 
SENT IT. 

You  can  condemn  Roosevelt  for  siding  with  the  South,  and  thus  zvin 
the  negro  vote,  for  the  reason  that  you  are  the  fortunate  beneficiary  of 
the  situation  which  COMPELS  the  South  to  vote  the  Democratic  ticket. 

But  are  you  dead  sure  that  the  South  is  helpless,  Mr.  Bryan? 

God !  Suppose  that  the  splendid  section  which  you  took  to  be  polit- 
ically dead  should  be  neither  dead  nor  sleeping,  but  should  spring  up, 
roused  bv  your  kicks,  AND  WITH  THE  LIGHT  OF  BATTLE  IN 
HER  EYES! 


EDITORIALS  437 


UNCLE  REMUS  IS   DEAD 


From  The  Weekly  Jeffersonlan,  July  9th. 


And  so  the  pale  messenger  that  never  tires,  and  never  pities — the 
messenger  that  called  Sappho  away  from  her  songs  and  Letitia  Lan- 
don  aw^ay  from  her  grief;  the  messenger  who  led  Byron  to  where  he 
could  sleep,  and  Keats  to  where  no  Gifford  could  stab  him  again  with 
merciless  criticism ;  the  messenger  who  piloted  Poe  to  "the  misty 
dim  regions  of  Weir,"  and  to  desolate  Burns  brought  the  sealed  orders 
under  which  he  sailed  into  the  Unknown  Seas — has  knocked  upon 
the  door  of  Uncle  Remus,  has  reached  upon  her  inexorable  roll-call 
the  name  of  Joel  Chandler  Harris,  has  come  to  guide  into  that  radiant 
Hereafter — of  which  Hope  is  the  creator  and  Faith  the  defender — a 
spirit  which  will  need  no  purification  to  fit  it  for  the  companionship 
of  the  good. 

;!;  ^;  *  *  :ic  ;(;  *  H:  *  * 

It  was  long,  long  ago.  I  was  a  penniless  teacher,  and  every 
evening  after  school  was  dismissed  I  would  trudge  back  to  where  I 
boarded — along  the  path  which  snaked  its  way  through  the  wire- 
grass,  underneath  the  moaning  pines — and  pick  up  the  Savannah 
Morning  A^ezvs.  Invariably,  upon  reaching  the  column  of  short  para- 
graphs, there  was  something  to  laugh  over.  And  then  the  friend 
with  whom  I  boarded  would  ask,  "What's  the  matter  with  you?" 
After  Mr.  Gross'  question,  the  reading  of  the  paragraph  would  be  in 
order.  Perhaps  it  was  a  reference  to  Tump  Ponder's  roan  mule, 
whose  harness  had  to  be  put  on  with  a  poplar  pole — a  new  pole  being 
needed  every  day;  perhaps  it  would  be  a  dig  at  the  Atlanta  politi- 
cians— those  perennially  amusing  cusses — but,  whatever  the  subject, 
there  was  humor  in  the  paragraphic  comment,  just  as  there  now  is  in 
that  wonderfully  fine  work  done  by  Ottinger  in  The  Washington  Post. 

Mr.  Gross  happened  to  know  about  the  authorship  of  these  para- 
graphs of  the  Savannah  Morning  Nezvs.  "Joe  Harris  writes  'em,"  he 
explained.  "The  printers  says  they  can  tell  when  he  is  at  it,  for  they 
can  hear  him  laugh  while  he  is  at  work." 

"Laugh  and  the  world  laughs  with  you,"  sings  our  glorious  sister, 
Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox,  and  the  words  are  true ;  but  she  missed  it  when 
she  added,  "Weep,  and  you  weep  alone."  No,  ah,  no!  NO!  The 
golden  chain  which  links  heart  to  heart,  soul  to  soul,  stretches  all 
the  way  from  the  springs  of  laughter  to  the  fountain  of  tears. 
Where  Dickens  laughed,  you  laugh !  Where  the  tears  blotted  the 
page  upon  which  he  wrote,  yours  blur  the  page  where  you  read.  Is 
it  not  always  so? 


438  \VATSON"S  JEFFERSOXIAX  MAGAZINE 

What  a  horrible  world  it  would  be,  were  there  no  good  Samari- 
tans, no  sun-crowned  men  who  will  stoop  to  lift  the  weakling  from 
the  dust,  no  large-souled  woman  to  forget  all  the  faults  of  Marmion 
and  cushion  his  dying  head  on  her  bosom ! 

Environed  sordidly,  we  grow  sordid  before  we  know  it.  It  is 
the  radiant  flower  that  paints  the  glories  of  the  butterfly's  wing.  The 
vulture  is  filthy,  for  his  food  is  filth.  Oh,  how  we  are  shaken,  roused, 
lifted  to  the  heights  where  the  sunlight  loves  to  rest,  when  some 
great  event  strikes  us,  when  some  inspiring  word  hails  all  the  diviner 
spirits  which  were  slumbering  within  us,  waking  them  to  life  again ! 
Then,  and  then  only,  we  throw  off  the  spell  of  the  sordid  surround- 
ings, and  enter  that  higher  world  where  all  nobler  souls  understand 
each  other,  honor  each  other,  love  one  another,  laugh  in  common  joy, 
weep  in  common  grief. 

Joe  Harris  was  just  a  name  to  me  all  the  while  that  I  lived  and 
taught  in  the  wire-grass  section,  near  Savannah ;  but  when,  in  1880, 
I  was  sent  as  a  delegate  to  the  Colquitt  Convention,  he  was  the  one 
man  in  Atlanta  that  I  wanted  to  see.  For  by  that  time  he  had  gone 
from  the  Savannah  Nezi's  to  the  Atlanta  Constitution,  and  I  had  been 
"reading  after  him"  with  an  interest  that  never  flagged.  "Every 
once  in  a  while,"  there  came  into  the  columns  of  the  editorial  page  a 
brief  sketch  so  different  from  all  the  rest  of  it — so  dainty  in  finish, 
so  tender  in  sentiment — that  I  would  read  it  again  and  again,  know- 
ing instinctively  that  it  was  Joe  Harris  who  penned  it.  Thirty  years 
ago  ! — a  long  road,  reaching  back  and  losing  itself  in  many  obscurities  , 
but  yet  I  see  vividly  the  little  printing  office  in  Putnam  County — the 
little  office  that  stood  amid  the  big  trees  of  the  native  forest;  the 
little  office  where  the  squirrels  played  upon  the  roof,  with  no  fear 
of  being  killed;  the  little  office  from  which  Joe  Harris'  friend  "went 
to  the  war."  Then  I  see,  again  and  very  plainly,  a  country  editor 
sitting  at  his  desk,  with  an  "exchange"  in  his  hand,  and  he  is  shaken 
with  sobs — his  eyes  overflowing  with  tears.  It  is  Joe  Harris,  and 
he  has  just  "seen  it  in  the  paper"  that  his  friend  has  been  killed  in 
battle. 

So,  when  I  went  up  to  the  gubernatorial  convention  to  take  my 
first  look  at  the  outer  world,  I,  the  shyest  of  men,  wanted  to  see  what 
Joe  Harris  looked  like — for  I  had  been  told  that  he,  also,  was  shy. 

Well,  I  saw  him,  and  the  sight  of  him  was  a  personal  consola- 
tion. He  was  red-headed,  he  was  freckle-faced,  he  was  ugly,  and  he 
was  plainly  incapable  of  adjusting  himself  to  human  miscellany. 
Said  he  to  me,  "Let  us  go  out  of  this  crowd" — it  was  in  the  Kimball 
House  lobby,  where  human  miscellany  is  apt  to  be  very  miscellaneous, 
indeed — "and  go  to  some  place  where  we  can  talk." 

But  we  couldn't  manage  it;  and  so  we  never  did  get  the  chance 
to  have  that  soul-to-soul  talk,  which  could  only  be  possible  when 
just  we  two  were  together. 

All  the  world  acclaims  Uncle  Remus  and  his  folk-lore  stories, 
and  his  high  place  in  literature  as  a  writer  of  stories  is  assured;  but 


EDITORIALS 


439 


to  my  mind  he  never  did  any  better  work  than  the  poems  and  fugitive 
pieces  which  appeared  long  before  the  day  of  Uncle  Remus. 

Those  "Gipsy  children"  have  a  natural  grace  and  beauty  that  "is 
a  joy  forever." 

In  the  last  letter  I  ever  wrote  him — a  letter  which  told  how  much 
I  had  always  admired  and  loved  him— I  urged  him  to  make  a  col- 
lection of  those  early  sketches,  in  order  that  they  might  be  preserved 
as  a  book.  His  health  began  to  fail  soon  after  the  letter  was  written, 
and  I  never  heard  from  him  again. 

In  formal  studied  phrase,  the  professional  men  of  the  world  of 
letters  will  eulogize  the  dead  journalist  and  author — the  pre-eminent 
Southern  literateur. 

I_who  am  nothing  more  than  a  tenant  by  sufferance  in  the  realm 
where  I  stumbled  because  of  the  force  of  relentless  circumstance, 
and  where  I  claim  no  title  to  a  foot  of  earth— come  in  all  humility 
and  sorrow  to  put  a  wild  flower  upon  his  grave. 

He  loved  the  birds— may  they  sing  sweetly  where  he  rests.  He 
loved  the  trees  and  flowers— may  the  leaves  whisper  while  he  sleeps 
and  the  flowers  bloom  above  his  couch. 

He  loved  his  fellow  man— may  every  heart  be  tenderer  and  no- 
bler because  he  lived;  may  every  eye  be  wet  with  tears  because  he 
died. 


440 


WATSON'S  TEFFERSOXIAX  MAGAZINE 


THE  OLD  PACKET  BOAT  BY  THE  JAMES 


The  train  was  slowing  down  for  Lynchburg;  passengers  were  risings 
from  their  seats,  getting  ready  to  leave  the  cars;  my  companion  leaned 
over  me  and  pointed  to  a  distant  object  on  the  far  bank  of  the  James 
and  said:  "See  that  old  boat  up  there  under  the  trees.  General  Jack- 
son's body  was  carried  in  that  from  Lynchburg  to  Lexington." 

In  the  swift  view  of  it  which  I  got,  as  the  train  carried  us  on,  it  ap- 
peared to  be  a  low,  irregular  hut,  squatting  there  disconsolately,  dilapi- 
dated and  forlorn. 

And  that  was  the  hearse  which  bore  to  its  last  resting  place,  "at 
Lexington,  in  the  A'alley  of  \'irginia."  the  corpse  of  one  of  the  greatest 
soldiers  the  world  has  known. 

The  instantaneous  photograph  of  the  old  boat  which  that  fleeting 
glimpse  of  it  made  on  my  mind  will  never  fade.  For  it  fired  the  long 
train  of  memory,  and  the  whole  of  "Stonewall"  Jackson's  phenomenal 
career  seemed  to  form  the  background  of  the  mental  picture  of  the 
old  boat. 


THE  OLD  PACKET  BOAT  (AS  IT  LOOKS  TO-DAY).  ON  WHICH  THE  REMAINS  OF  "STONEWALL' 
JACKSON  WERE  CARRIED  FROM  LYNCHBURG  TO  LEXINGTON.  VA. 


His  early  life  of  poverty,  orphanage  and  disease;  his  indomitable 
determination  to  get  on;  his  record  at  West  Point,  where  his  angularity 
and  industry  were  his  most  noticeable  traits  of  character :  then  his  serv- 
ices in  the  Mexican  war,  where  he  was  somewhat  of  a  rollicking  officer, 
brave  as  his  sword,  full  of  dash  but  also  full  of  fun.  Quartered  in  the 
"Halls  of  the  Montezumas,"  he  threw  himself  into  the  social  pleasures 
which  followed  so  soon  upon  the  close  of  the  fighting.  No  officer  in 
the  army  was  fonder  of  the  society  of  the  beautiful  Mexican  ladies ;  and 
in  order  that  he  might  the  belter  enjoy  their  company,  he  mastered 
the  Spanish  tongue.  Then  came  the  service  in  the  Seminole  war,  in 
which  there  were  no  laurels  to  be  gained. 


EDITORIALS 


441 


Professor  in  the  Virginia  Military  Institute,  Jackson  was  regarded 
as  an  oddity,  and  nothing  more.  The  boys  played  all  sorts  of  pranks 
off  on  him,'  and  the  Faculty  held  him  as  almost  a  negligible  quan- 
tity. Because  he  was  so  strict,  angular,  rigid,  Jackson  was  not 
popular  with  the  gay  young  fellows  who  came  there  to  loiter  their 
way  through  to  graduation.  At  school  he  had  been  nicknamed 
"Fool  Tom  Jackson,"  and  now  that  he  was  a  teacher  of  boys  the  same 
tendency  to  provoke  ridicule  clung  to  him.  On  the  drill  ground  the 
pieces  of  artillery,  in  default  of  horses,  were  drawn  by  the  students:  to 
tease  and  annoy  Jackson,  these  artillery  teams  would  pretend  to  get 
frightened,   during   the   maneuvres,   and   would   "run    away   with"    the 

cannon. 

\\'hen  I  was  at  Lexing- 
ton a  few  years  ago,  a 
member  of  the  Faculty 
who  was  attached  to  the 
College  at  the  time  Jackson 
was  a  teacher  there,  told 
me,  as  an  evidence  of  Jack- 
son's self-control,  that  on 
one  occasion,  when  a  stu- 
dent who  nursed  a  grudge 
against  the  strict  Profes- 
sor, threw  a  brick-bat  at 
him  as  he  was  taking  his 
walk  in  the  grounds,  Jack- 
son did  not  so  much  as 
turn  his  head. 

This  gentleman  also  told 
me  that  the  Faculty  of  the 
Institute  were  considering 
the  matter  of  dispensing 
with  the  chair  filled  by 
Jackson,  when  the  Civil 
War  broke  out,  and  the  angular  Professor  was  called  to  the  field. 

They  showed  me  the  very  commonplace  house  which  was  Jackson's 
home  in  Lexington,  and  it  aroused  in  me  emotions  which  no  palace  on 
this  earth  would  stir :— a  very  modest  house,  with  an  ugly  location,— 
for  its  front  wall  is  flush  with  the  sidewalk,— standing  on  a  side  street, 
near  the  centre  of  a  town  which  occupies  a  site  of  great  natural  beauty. 
And  that  was  the  "garden  of  Brienne"  of  Stonewall  Jackson !  The  place 
where  he  buried  himself  in  study,  standing  at  his  desk,  without  book  or 
paper,  concentrating  his  thought  intensely  upon  all  that  he  had  read 
during  the  study-hours  of  the  day.  Then,  when  the  clock  struck  nine— 
not  before  it  began  to  strike,  and  not  until  the  ninth  stroke  had  sent  its 
record-voice  to  the  past.— did  the  rigid  student  throw  off  the  shackles 
of  discipline,  and  begin  to  romp  with  the  children  on  the  floor  or  mingle 
in  the  li^it  and  familiar  conversation  of  the  household. 


THOMAS  JONATHAN  JACKSON. 


442 


WATSON'S  JEFFERSOXIAX  MAGAZINE 


For  the  odd  Professor,  whom  nobody  understood,  but  who  was 
thoroughly  respected  by  every  sober-minded  person  who  knew  him,  had 
somehow  or  other  won  the  heart  of  a  beautiful  young  woman,  had  made 
her  his  wife,  and  was  now  a  beloved  member  of  her  family. 

Margaret  J.  Preston  is  known  to  almost  every  one  who  reads,  but 
her  sister  Eleanor  is  remembered  by  the  few,  only,  who  know  that  it  was 
she  whose  loveliness  of  person  and  character  completely  subdued  the 
shy  and  complex  character  of  the  Professor,  converted  him  to  her 
own  religious  faith,  gave  him  the  first  inclination  toward  becoming  de- 
vout, and  by  her  untimely  death,  after  one  year  of  domestic  happiness, 
gave  him  a  sorrow  that  darkened  the  remainder  of  his  life. 

To  me,  "Stonewall"  Jackson  seems  to  belong  to  the  class  of  Havelock 
and  "Chinese"  Gordon.  Like  those  great  soldiers,  he  was  a  religious 
fanatic.  Like  them,  he  was  a  mystic.  Had  he  been  made  Commander- 
in-Chief  in  some  war  fought  for  the  sake  of  religion,  he  would 
probably  have  developed  into  the  Greatest  of  Great  Captains.  As  it 
was,  I  see  in  Jackson,  as  in  Lee,  a  curious  occasional  apathy.  Somehow, 
I  get  the  idea  that,  wdiile  both  were  absolutely  loyal  to  the  Southern 
Confederacy,  unselfish  and  unsparing  of  themselves  in  the  service,  neither 
Stonewall  Jackson  nor  Robert  E.  Lee  had  that  supreme  confidence,  that 
whole-hearted  passion  of  purpose,  which  is  so  essential  to  success. 


LEE  AND  JACKSON  AT  COLD  HARBOR. 

Both  Jackson  and  Lee  were  at  their  best  when  repelling  invasion. 
The  presence  of  Northern  troops  in  the  Valley,  aroused  all  the  lion  in 
Stonewall  Jackson,  and  he  put  forth  the  terrible  energy  which  made  that 
campaign  immortal.  The  approach  of  the  Northern  hosts  upon  Rich- 
mond had  a  similar  effect  upon  General  Lee;  he  rose    to    the    crisis 


EDITORIALS  443 

and  was  the  Great  Captain — some  say  the  greatest  of  all  the  soldiers 
produced  by  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  But  once  the  supreme  danger  to 
native  land  had  passed,  neither  Lee  nor  Jackson  pressed  their  advan- 
tages home,  with  the  ruthless  purpose  of  destroying  the  enemy,  as 
each  would  have  done  had  they  been  fighting  any  other  people  save  thfir 
own  flesh  and  blood. 

The  blundering,  disastrous  pursuit  of  McClellan,  as  he  fell  back  on 
the  James,  after  the  fighting  around  Richmond,  shows  this.  The  South- 
ern army  would  have  been  immensely  better  off  had  it  simply  kept  in 
sight  of  the  enemy,  compelling  him  to  continue  the  retreat  by  threaten- 
ing his  flank  and  his  base  of  supplies.  In  fact,  Gen.  E.  P.  Alexander, 
in  his  most  valuable  book  of  Reminiscences,  describes  the  conduct  of 
Stonewall  Jackson,  during  the  retreat  of  McClellan,  in  a  way  that  leaves 
no  doubt  of  the  great  commander's  lack  of  mental  energy  during  the 
pursuit. 

The  gentlemanly  manner  in  which  General  Lee  conducted  his  opera- 
tions each  time  that  he  invaded  the  enemy's  country,  proves  my  analysis 
to  be  correct.  Think  of  Wellington,  or  Blucher,  or  Napoleon,  or  Marl- 
borough, scolding  his  troops,  furiously,  for  taking  apples  from  the 
orchards  of  the  foe,  or  making  a  camp  fire  out  of  his  fence-rails. 

An  old  soldier,  who  now  lives  at  Sugar  Valley,  Georgia,  published 
a  letter  in  The  Weekly  Jeffersonian,  in  which  he  told  how  General  Lee, 
in  high  wrath,  called  him  a  "thief,"  a  "disgrace  to  the  army,"  and  other 
"hard  names,"  because  the  soldier,  hungry  and  tired,  had  taken  some 
fruit  from  an  orchard  and  was  trying  to  satisfy  his  hunger  with  it.  This 
was  during  the  invasion  of  Pennsylvania. 

It  was  in  the  highest  degree  creditable  to  Robert  E.  Lee  that  he 
would  order  one  of  his  men  to  "put  that  rail  back  on  that  fence," — but 
is  that  the  spirit  which  wins,  in  war?  It  ought  to  be,  I  grant  you, — but 
is  it  ?  There  used  to  be  much  of  that  noble  spirit  in  the  days  of  Chivalry 
and  in  the  days  when  the  French  officers  were  supposed  to  say  to  the 
foe,  "Gentlemen  of  the  English  Guard,  we  never  fire  first." 

But  whatever  remains  of  that  "after  yoit"  spirit  were  left  in  Europe, 
the  era  of  Napoleon  swept  away;  and  ever  since  he  scandalized  the 
decorous  Austrian  officers  by  fighting  them  in  any  way  that  meant  most 
damage  to  them,—rn\&s  or  no  rules,— the  practice  has  been  the  reverse 
of  chivalrous.  The  ruthlessness  of  Grant,  Sherman,  Sheridan,  and 
Rosecrans  was  most  ungentlemanly, — but  most  effective. 

Had  our  West  Point  generals  waged  war  upon  the  North  with  the 
same  destructive  fury,  the  result  of  the  conflict  would  have  been  different. 
Had  General  N.  B.  Forrest  been  at  the  head  of  the  magnificent  army 
which  invaded  Maryland,  there  would  have  been  no  Antietam :  had  he 
led  the  host  that  entered  Pennsylvania,  there  would  have  been  no  Gettys- 
burg. He  would  have  been  as  rviihless  as  Sheridan  or  Sherman,  and  by 
the  time  the  North  began  to  read,  in  the  light  of  burning  homes  and 
blazing  cities,  zvhat  war  meant,  there  would  have  been  heard  an  irre- 
sistible cry  of,  "Stop  it,  Stop  it!" 


444 


WATSON'S  JEFFERSOXIAX  MAGAZINE 


It  zivs  because  the  Xorth  WAS  NEVER  MADE  TO  REALIZE 

WHAT  THE  WAR  WAS,  that  she  kept  it  up! 

************ 

And  the  old  boat  crouches  on  the  bank  of  the  river,  slowly  settling 
down  into  ruin.  Thrifty,  feverish,  money-loving  Commercialism  hurries 
by  and  gives  the  lonely  derelict  a  merely  casual  glance.  And  yet  the 
sight  of  it  calls  up  so  much  to  those  who  know  the  past. 

I  close  my  eyes  and  hear  again  the  peal  of  thunder  and  see  the  dis- 
tant lightning,  as  Stonewall  Jackson  crashes  against  the  Union  flank  at 
Chancellorsville.  I  hear  the  "ten  thousand  whippoorwills"  of  whom  Jeb 
Stuart  spoke  afterwoods ;  I  see  the  Confederates  struggle  forward  in 
the  dense  scrub  woods;  the  Federals  scatter  in  confusion  and  Howard's 
Corps  is  annihilated;  the  rapid  advance  of  Jackson's  men  has  broken 
their  own  formation  and  there  is  a  perilous  confusion;  the  enemy,  in  a 
desperate  attempt  at  salvation,  plants  a  battery  and  shells  the  turnpike ; 
a  momentary  halt  is  made  by  the  Confederates,  and  Jackson,  caught  up 
in  the  concentration  of  a  great  purpose,  rides  too  far,  too  far  to  the 
front ;  with  all  his  might  he  is  pushing  around  to  the  enemy's  rear,  to 
cut  him  off  from  the  United  States  ford,  and  take  his  entire  army  pris- 
oners, or  destroy  it ! 


CHANCELLORSVILLE. 

Alas,  he  rides  too  far  in  the  darkness; — no  picket  line  protects  him 
from  the  enemy  and  he  comes  within  their  musket  range,  is  fired  upon, 
gallops  back  toward  his  own  men — who  have  orders  to  fire  on  cavalry  and 
who  do  not  know  that  Stonewall  has  ridden  beyond  them — is  fired  upon 
by  his  men  and  is  carried,  here  and  yonder,  by  his  frenzied  horse,  whic^. 
the  wounded  hero  can  no  longer  control;  is  at  length  lifted  from  the 
saddle  to  the  ground,  where  he  lies  beneath  a  tremendous  cannonade  of 
the  enemy,  with  a  drawn  face,  white  with  pain,  turned  up  to  the  moon. 


EDITORIALS 


44:) 


"My  God!  it's  General  Jackson!"  cried  a  soldier,  marching  by:  and 
in  a  few  days  the  heartbroken  wail  rang  throughout  the  South,  "Aiy 
God !  Stonewall  Jackson  is  dead." 

In  the  book,  "Bethany,"  I  unintentionally  gave  pain  to  the  widow 
and  children  of  General  Pender,  by  stating  that,  apparently,  the  shots 
which  were  fatal  to  General  Jackson  were  fired  by  men  of  Pender's  bri- 
gade. I  was  led  into  this  error  by  following  Gen.  Fitz  Lee.  I  am  sat- 
isfied that  Gen.  Lee  was  in  error.  It  is  practically  certain  that  the  troops 
who  fired  upon  Gen.  Jackson  belonged  to  Lane's,  North  Carolina, 
brigade. 

The  subject  is  painful,  and  perhaps  no  attempt  should  ever  have  been 
made  to  identify  the  soldiers  who  did  the  shooting.  No  possible  good 
could  come  of  it — for  the  troops  were  not  at  all  to  blame. 

Whether  Gen.  Jackson  assum- 


ed that  a  picket  line  had  been 
thrown  out  in  front,  or  whether 
his  act  in  riding  forward  was  in- 
cident to  his  absorption  in  his 
great  purpose,  can  never  be 
known.  During  the  days  of  pa- 
tient suffering  which  preceded 
his  death — the  death  of  a  resign- 
ed, undoubting  Christian  —  he 
made  no  effort  to  account  for 
what  had  occurred.  A  pathetic 
detail,  however,  is  that  those  who 
first  got  to  him,  after  he  was 
shot,  relate  that  his  expression 
zvas  one  of  utter  astonishment. 
But  the  iron  lips  closed  down 
and  he  said  nothing.  Nothing? 
Nothing  about  the  calamity  that 
had  befallen  him. 
But  when  Gen.  Pender  expressed  a  doubt  of  being  able  to  hold  his 

advanced,  exposed  and  temporarily  unsupported  position,  Jackson's  order 

came,  prompt,  stern,  emphatic : 

"You  must   hold  your  ground,    General  Pender!      You   must  hold 

your  ground,  Sir!" 

Faint  with   loss  of  blood,   unable  to  stand,   racked  with   pain,  the 

soldierly  instinct  and  heroic  spirit  were  masters  to  the  end :     "Hold  your 

ground!" 

At  the  first  Manassas,  Gen.  Thomas  Jonathan  Jackson  would  not 

give  ground  to  the  enemy,  was  immovable  and  confident  when  the  wrecks 

of  broken  brigades  were  all  around  him,  and  so  won  the  title  by  which 

his  people  prefer  to  call  him.     It  was  fitting  that  his  last  order  on  the 

field  of  battle  should  have  been  just  what  it  was:     "You  must  hold  your 

ground.  Sir!" 

Gen.  Pender  was  a  brave  officer,  and  Gen.  Lee's  official  report  of 


STONEWALL   J.^CKSON 


446  WATSON'S  JEFFERSOXIAX  MAGAZINE 

Chancellorsville  makes  mention  of  the  conspicuous  gallantry  displayed 

by  Gen.   Pender  in  the  battle  on  the  day  after  Jackson's   fall. 
************ 

There  never  was  a  sublimer  funeral  given  to  any  National  hero 
than  the  South  gave  her  ideal  soldier,  Stonewall  Jackson.  Not  only  was 
he  mourned  by  the  weeping  thousands  who  followed  his  body  to  Rich- 
mond, but  it  is  a  literal  fact  that  in  every  city  and  town  throughout  the 
Confederacy  there  were  outbursts  of  grief  that  betokened  a  universal 
sorrow.  Even  now,  there  is  no  subject — none  whatever — that  moves 
the  average  Southern  man  more  quickly  and  more  profoundly  than  that 
of  Jackson, — his  purity,  his  consecration,  his  sublime  unselfishness,  his 
beautiful  and  grand  simplicity,  his  profound  and  unobtrusive  piety,  his 
dramatic  and  tragic  fall  in  the  hour  of  glorious  victory,  his  fortitude  in 

suffering,  his  touching  submission  to  the  will  of  God. 
************ 

I  turn  to  the  Diary  kept  by  Margaret  J.  Preston.  The  date  is  May 
5th.  (1863.) 

Here  is  the  entry: 

"Today  brings  news  of  a  terrible  battle — but  no  particulars ;  only 
that  Gen.  Frank  Paxton  is  killed,  Jackson  and  A.  P.  Hill  wounded." 

"May  7th:  Another  day  of  awful  suspense.  Not  a  solitary  letter 
or  person  has  come  from  the  army  to  Lexington ;  only  a  telegram  from 
Governor  Letcher,  announcing  that  Captain  Greenlee  Davidson  is  killed ; 
his  body  and  Paxton's  are  expected  tomorrow.  What  fearful  times  we 
live  in  !" 

"Friday,  8th.  Today  we  hear  that  Gen.  Jackson's  arm  is  ampu- 
tated and  that  he  is  wounded  in  the  right  hand.  How  singular  that  it 
should  have  been  done  through  mistake  by  a  volley  from  his  own  men. 
It  happened  at  midnight  Saturday." 

'"May  10th,  Sabbath:  This  afternoon  Dr.  White  attempted  to  hold 
service ;  but  just  as  he  was  beginning,  the  mail  arrived,  and  so  great  was 
the  excitement,  and  so  intense  the  desire  for  news,  that  he  was  obliged 
to  dismiss  the  congregation.  We  only  hear  of  one  more  death  among 
Lexington  boys,  young  Imboden.  Several  wounded ;  this  is  much  bet- 
ter than  we  had  dared  to  hope." 

"May  12th,  Tuesday:  Last  night  I  sat  at  this  desk  writing  a  letter 
to  General  Jackson,  urging  him  to  come  up  and  stay  with  us,  as  soon  as 
his  wound  would  permit  him  to  move.  /  zvcnt  doivnstairs  this  morning, 
zi'ith  the  letter  in  7n\  hand,  and  zvas  met  bv  the  overwhelming  nezvs  that 
JACKSON  WAS  DEAD!  A  telegram  had  been  sent  to  Col.  Smith  by 
a  courier  from  Staunton.  Doubt  was  soon  thrown  upon  this  by  the  ar- 
rival of  someone  from  Richmond,  who  saifl  he  had  left  when  the  tele- 
gram did,  and  there  was  no  such  rumor  in  Richmond.  So,  between  al- 
ternate hope  and  fear,  the  day  passed.  It  was  saddened  by  the  bringing 
home  of  General  Paxton's  remains,  and  by  his  funeral.  At  five  this 
evening  the  startling  confirmation  comes — Jackson  is  indeed  dead !  My 
heart  overflows  with  sorrow.  The  grief  in  this  community  is  intense ; 
everybody  is  in  tears.  What  a  release  from  his  weary  two  years'  war- 
fare.   To  be  released  into  the  blessedness  and  peace  of  heaven !  .      .      . 


EDITORIALS  447 

How  fearful  the  loss  to  the  Confederacy  !  The  people  made  an  idol  of 
him  and  Cod  has  rebuked  them.  No  more  ready  soul  has  ascended  to 
the  throne  than  was  his.  Never  have  I  seen  a  human  being  as  thor- 
oughly governed  by  duty.  He  lived  only  to  please  God;  his  daily  life 
was  a  daily  offering  up  of  himself.  All  his  letters  to  Mr.  P.  and  to  me 
since  the  war  began,  have  breathed  the  spirit  of  a  saint.  In  his  last  let- 
ter to  me,  he  spoke  of  our  precious  Ellie,  and  the  blessedness  of  being 
with  her  in  heaven.  And  now  he  has  joined  her,  and  together  they  unite 
in  ascribing  praises  to  Him  who  has  redeemed  them  by  his  blood.  Oh, 
the  havoc  death  is  making!  The  beautiful  sky  and  the  rich,  perfumed 
air  seemed  darkened  by  oppressive  sorrow.  Who  thinks  or  speaks  of 
victory?  The  word  is  scarcely  ever  heard.  Alas!  Alas!  When  is  the 
end  to  be?" 

"May  15th,  Friday:  General  Jackson  was  buried  today,  amid  the 
flowing  tears  of  a  vast  concourse  of  people.  By  a  strange  coincidence, 
two  calvary  companies  happened  to  be  passing  through  Lexington  from 
the  West,  just  at  the  hour  of  the  ceremonies;  they  stopped,  procured 

mourning  for  their  colors,  and  joined  the  procession The 

exercises  were  very  appropriate;  a  touching  voluntary  was  sung  with 
subdued,  sobbing  voices;  a  prayer  from  Dr.  Ramsey  of  most  melting 
tenderness ;  very  true  and  discriminating  remarks  from  Dr.  White,  and 

a  beautiful  prayer  from  W.  F.  J. .     The  coffin  was  draped  in  the 

first  Confederate  flag  ever  made,  and  presented  by  Pres.  Davis  to  Mrs. 
Jackson ;  it  was  wrapped  around  the  cofftn  and  on  it  were  laid  multi- 
tudes of  wreathes  and  flowers  which  had  been  piled  upon  it  all  along- 
the  sad  journey  to  Richmond  and  thence  to  Lexington.  The  grave,  too, 
was  heaped  with  flowers.  And  now  it  is  all  over,  and  the  hero  is  left 
'alone  in  his  glory.'  Not  many  better  men  have  lived  and  died.  His 
body-servant  said  to  me,  'I  never  knew  a  piouscr  gentleman.'  Sincerei 
mourning  was  never  manifested  for  anyone,  I  do  think.  .  .  .  The 
dear  little  child  is  so  like  her  father;  she  is  a  sweet  thing,  and  will  be  a 
blessing,  I  trust,  to  the  heart-wrung  mother." 


A  SURVEY  OF  THE  WORLD 


By  TOM   DOLAN 


The  Denver  Pow-Wow. 

The  Democratic  convention  at  Den- 
ver was  pretty  much  a  mess.  "Among 
those  present"  was  the  gentleman 
who  had  some  idea  of  dragging  him- 
self into  prominence  by  trying  to 
stampede  the  "rock-ribbed"  brethren 
for  Roosevelt,  recalling  the  Chatta- 
nooga incident  wherein  our  brilliant 
John  Temple  Graves  similarly  effer- 
vesced. There  were  the  Parkerites 
loaded  with  the  Cleveland  resolutions. 
There  were  the  lost  and  lonely  allies 
like  derelicts  drifting  upon  the  "Bry- 
any"  sea,  while  Princess  Alice  Long- 
worth,  Lady  Ruth  Bryan  Leavitt,  and 


other  peeresses  of  the  realm  added  to 
the  picturesqueness  of  the  occasion. 
Mrs.  Mary  C.  Bradford,  one  of  the 
two  women  delegate s-at-large,  was 
there  with  an  equal  suffrage  plank, 
ready  to  hold  up  the  American  end  of 
the  Suffragette  movement.  The 
"Peerless  One"  kept  his  hand  on  the 
nominating  button,  and  when  he 
pressed  it,  to  his  exceedingly  great 
surprise,  it  spelled  his  name.  Where- 
upon the  cohorts  recited  the  screech 
they  had  been  sent  to  deliver,  to  the 
tune  of  "what-the-Hell-do-we-care," 
trampled  the  allies  into  the  dust,  hung 
Guffey's  scalp  on  some  bushes  to  dry. 


DEE-LIGHTED." 


A  SURVEY  OF  THE  WORLD 


449 


insulted  the  Southern  delegations  and 
decamped. 

Scandals  in  Germany. 

When  you  cast  a  pehble  into  a  pond, 
there  is  an  ever  widening  circle  winch 
rionles  over  the  surface,  and  it  is  so 
with  the  Eulenberg  sensation,  which 
now  threatens  to  involve  not  only  the 
nobility,  but  the  very  royalty  of  the 
German  Empire.  Disgrace,  impris- 
onment and  suicide  have  been  making 
inroads  among  the  Kaiser's  intimate 
friends. 

Naturally,  but  few  details  leak  out 
from  that  rigid  court  and  if  they  did 
they  would  hardly  get  through  a  cen- 
sored press.  This,  in  our  dull  season, 
is  somewhat  hard,,  seeing  how  freely 
we  divert  all  nations  by  a  generous 
publication  of  the  antics  of  our  bil- 
lionaires and  the  salacious  doings  of 
our  aristocratic  divorcees.  It  is  a  se- 
rious detriment  to  the  "entente"  that 
there  should  be  this  unequal  exchange 
of  entertainment.  Wilhelm,  further- 
more, has  chopped  off  a  part  of  those 
upcurling  and  bristling  mustachios, 
and  we  cannot  figure  out  the  signifi- 
cance of  this.  There  is  a  Mrs.  Grun- 
dy spirit  among  nations,  as  in  every 
community,  and  that  spirit  wants  to 
find  out  things. 

Labor  After  the  Beef  Trusi 

Labor  leaders  in  New  York  have 
demanded  a  Federal  inquiry  into  the 
Beef  Trust  and  have  called  upon  the 
Attorney  General  of  the  United  States 
to  act.  Labor  unions  throughout  the 
entire  country  are  urged  to  pass  sim- 
ilar resolutions.  It  has  been  found 
that,  without  any  warrant  therefor, 
the  price  of  meats  has  gone  up  from 
three  to  seven  cents  per  pound.  The 
feeling  in  New  York  is  so  intense  that 
women  have  rioted  in  many  instances 
and  there  is  an  absolute  revolt  against 
the  extortion  being  practiced.  Labor- 
ing men  are  almost  of  necessity  meat 


eaters,  for  meat  is  the  most  concen- 
trated of  all  foods  and  there  are  very 
good  physiological  reasons  why  you 
cannot  deprive  a  laborer  of  meat 
without  intiicting  hardship  upon 
him,  and  a  very  possible  retrogression 
in  his  work.  This  protest  from  labor 
unions  ought  to  receive  prompt  con- 
sideration from  the  President,  and  if 
he  ever  wants  to  "bust  a  Trust"  he 
could  please  the  common  people  no 
more  than  by  smashing  this  most  in- 
famous monopoly. 
Appalling  Advance  of  Militarism. 

General  Robert  Shaw  Oliver,  Asst. 
Secretary  of  War,  has  outlined  a  plan 
to  organize  a  standing  army  of  250,- 
000  men  and  bring  Federal  and  State 
troops  into  one  great  military  organ- 
ization trained  and  equipped  for  any 
emergency.  He  is  quoted  as  saying : 
"There  are  no  longer  any  militia  men. 
They  are  all  United  States  volunteers. 
In  the  event  of  war  they  are  part  of 
the  regular  army  under  the  new  law. 
Up  to  this  time  the  President  has 
been  powerless  to  direct  the  manage- 
ment of  State  troops.  It  is  so  no 
longer !" 

The  peaceful  citizen,  seeing  no 
wars  impending,  desiring  no  con- 
quests, realizing  that  our  colonial  pol- 
icies have  been  frightful  mistakes 
cannot  but  ask  himself,  bewilderedly : 
"What  does  it  mean?  Why  should 
we  have  a  huge  fleet  restlessly  win- 
nowing the  oceans,  while  a  great  en- 
gine of  despotism — a  standing  Fed- 
eral army  for  which  there  is  no  ex- 
cuse— should  be  built  up  and  foisted 
upon  us?" 

What  is  the  true  answer  to  be  giv- 
en to  this  peaceful  citizen? 

Another  South  American  Revolution. 

Paraguay — that  queer  country  we 
always  have  to  look  up  in  the  Geogra- 
phy every  time  it  ventures  into  the 
lime-light — is  just  now  having  her 
turn  at  a    revolution.     Many    rioters 


450 


WATSON'S  TEFFERSONIAN  MAGAZINE 


are  reported  killed  and  fighting  has 
been  going  on  for  days  in  the  City  of 
Asuncion.  The  reasons  for  the  up- 
rising against  their  present  govern- 
ment are  ones  which  we  commend  to 
thoughtful  persons  the  world  over: 
conditions  approaching  bankruptcy,  a 
daily  falling  off  in  trade,  an  increasing 
premium  on  gold  and  growing  dis- 
tress of  the  population. 

Pension  Bills. 

The  House  of    Commons  has    re- 
cently put  through  an  old-age  pension 


and  England  would  better  mend  the 
system  that  makes  paupers  of  the 
honest  and  industrious  poor  than  to 
make  them  distributees  of  disappoint- 
ing pittances  at  the  close  of  a  life- 
time drudgery. 

A  Fourth  of  July  Petition. 

Seizing  upon  the  anniversary  of 
our  Independence,  the  Filipinos  have 
called  the  attention  of  this  Govern- 
ment to  their  unhappy  condition  due 
to  our  Tariff,  pointing  to  the  advan- 


Secretary  Taft— 'We   serve  this  beveragein  small  doses,  so 
that  you  may  not  become  intoxicated." 

—  Morris  in  the  Spokane  Spokesman  Rcvuw. 


bill,  thus  adding  $40,000,000  yearly  to 
the  disbursements  England  must 
make  and  English  people  must  man- 
age to  provide.  It  is  generally  re- 
garded as  a  -victory  for  Socialism. 
Honest  old  age  should  not  have  to 
beg  its  bread,  of  course;  but  a  free 
field  and  a  fair  fight  in  youth  would 
make   old   age   pensions    unnecessary 


tages  which  Porto  Rico  enjoys  by 
reason  of  free  trade,  and  makes  what 
should  be  a  touching  claim  that  Uncle 
Sam  is  under  a  moral  obligation  to  as- 
sist them. 

Will  not  the  merit  of  their  appeal 
go  straight  to  the  heart  of  the  new 
Secretary  of  War,  Gen.  Luke  E. 
Wright,  an  ex-Confederate  soldier? 


A  SURVEY  OF  THE  WORLD 


451 


Trouble  In  India. 

Rebellion  to  British  rule  is  brewing 
in  India.  Indians,  educated  in  Amer- 
ica and  other  lands,  have  gone  home 
to  find  the  condition  of  their  people 
anything  but  gratifying  to  their  pride 
and  patriotic  societies  have  been  sow- 
ing the  seeds  of  revolt.  England  is 
much  dismayed  and  has,  rather  un- 
wisely we  think,  resorted  to  a  Press 
act  intended  to  check  the  publication 
of  "seditious"  doctrines.  Russia's 
encroachments  are  temporarily  check- 
ed, but  it  looks  as  if  England's  main- 
tenance of  her  power  must  mean  to 
tremble  in  fear  of  another  Khyber 
Pass  or  bloody  Mutiny.  Two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  millions  of  human  be- 
ings is  a  pretty  big  crowd  to  keep 
subjugated,  even  though  they  are  not 
at  all  of  a  militant  type. 

To  add  to  her  troubles,  there  is  a 
bitter  quarrel  on  now  between  Eng- 
land's famous  sea-captains.  Admiral 
Lord  Charles  Beresford  and  Admiral 
Sir  John  Fisher  which  has  split  the 
navy  into  two  factions.  Lord  Beres- 
ford has  opposed  reforms  in  the  Na- 
vy— and  no  one  who  knows  anything 
of  the  British  Navy  but  realizes  that 
reforms  there  were  sadly  needed — 
which  Sir  John  Fisher  attempted  to 
make  in  the  nature  of  compelling  offi- 
cers and  men  to  get  busy,  instead  of 
enjoying  a  perennial  pleasure  cruise. 
Unfortunately,  it  is  said  this  state  of 
affairs  cannot  be  controlled  by  the 
Admiralty,  for  the  simple  reason  that 
they  would  have  a  "strike"  on  their 
hands. 
Grover  Cleveland  Dead. 

In  the  years  which  intervened  be- 
tween his  first  and  second  administra- 
tions, Grover  Cleveland  said :  "It's 
a  solemn  thing  to  be  President."  And 
now  the  great  solemnity  of  death  has 
come  to  him,  and  we  who  live  to  com- 
ment on  the  news  that  this  powerful 


tigure  in  national  affairs  has  faded 
into  the  mists  of  Eternity,  pause  and 
ponder  with  a  feeling  akin  to  awe 
upon  his  record.  For  it  is  closed  now. 
The  book  is  sealed.  He  who  balances 
and  weighs  all  men  and  all  adminis- 
trations will  audit  the  account  and  no 
mortal  hand  may  erase  an  error  or 
add  one  further  item  on  the  credit 
side. 

For  the  "unreplying  dead,"  we  have 
nothing  but  respect,  and  for  the  wid- 
ow and  children  who  mourn,  the  deep- 
est reverence  for  their  sorrow.  But 
his  record  is  as  much  the  property  of 
the  historian  of  the  present  as  of  the 
future,  and  it  is  in  the  spirit  of  the 
historian,  not  the  partisan,  we  ap- 
proach it.  His  first  administration 
was  creditable  and  he  left  the  White 
House  the  idol  and  the  oracle  of  his 
party.  But  his  breadth  was  not  equal 
to  his  strength  and  Cleveland  as  an 
office-seeker  and  during  his  second 
term  showed  a  narrow  and  stubborn 
disregard  of  the  party  which  had  so 
faithfully  followed  and  hopefully 
trusted  him.  His  was  a  superb  op- 
portunity to  render  Democracy  a  su- 
preme service.  Instead  of  that,  he 
held  it  up  to  the  world  as  but  a  less 
powerful  Republicanism.  It  was  he 
who  virtually  established  the  Gold 
Standard,  played  into  the  hands  of 
Wall  Street  and  placed  corruption  in 
high  places.  No  Republican  Presi- 
dent could  have  done  worse. 

Strike. 

A  strike  has  been  declared  by  the 
union  miners  of  the  State  of  Ala- 
bama. The  appeal  to  the  miners  urges 
them  to  quit  work  and  make  a  su- 
preme effort  to  effect  a  powerful  or- 
ganization, obtain  a  betterment  of 
wages  and  conditions  and  they  are 
promised  the  help  of  the  United  Mine 
Workers  of  America. 


^52 


WATSON'S  JEFFERSOXIAX  MAGAZINE 


The  Suave  Insolence  of  Mr.  Schwab. 

A  few  days  ago  Mr.  C.  M. 
Schwab,  the  Steel  Trust  magnate,  re- 
lieved his  pent-up  feelings  in  an  inter- 
view on  his  return  from  Europe.  The 
burden  of  his  song  was  praise,  of 
course,  for  the  Ship  Subsidy  bill.  He 
followed  the  usual  tactics  employed 
by  our  patriotic  Captains  of  Industry 
in  making  a  floundering  attempt  to 
show  that  it  would  be  of  general  ben- 
efit to  the  entire  country,  but  he  for- 
got himself  finally  in  venting  the  pre- 


Mr.  Schwab  further  confesses  that 
the  Government  might,  if  necessity 
arose,  be  compelled  to  send  away  our 
goods  in  foreign  built  ships. 

This  is  a  clean  give-away  of  the 
real  influence  back  of  the  Big  Navy 
propaganda. 

The  tariff  killed  our  merchant  ma- 
rine, and  now  they  propose  to  resur- 
rect by  the  forced  process  of  subsidiz- 
ing ship-builders.  Ship-building  ma- 
terials on  the  free-list,  or  the  liberty 
to   buy    ships    wherever    we    can    get 


n 


■  ~\ 


j^ 


diction  that  "it  would  never  be  possi- 
ble to  prevent  the  passage  of  the  bill 
for  the  reason  that  the  whole  steel  in- 
dustry and  many  other  interests  of 
the  country  were  intimately  involved 
with  the  business  of  ship-building." 
That  is  to  say,  it  is  vain  to  oppose 
what  the  "special  interests"  demand. 


them  cheapest,  would  at  once  evolve 
an  American  Merchant  Marine.  But 
the  navigation  laws  deny  the  protec- 
tion of  our  flag  to  the  foreign  built 
ship,  or  the  high  duties  which  cause 
high  prices  in  ship-building  materials 
make  it  impossible  for  us  to  compete 
with  foreigners. 


A  SURVEY  OF  THE  WORLD 


453 


To  take  money  out  of  the  U.  S. 
treasury  to  hire  men  to  build  ships 
and  maintain  them  is  sheer  diaboUsm. 

Big  Game  for  Roosevelt. 

Grizzlies,  mountain  lions  and  his- 
weight-in-wild-cats  appearing,  at  least 
in  the  sheltered  precincts  of  the  White 
House,  to  be  too  insignificant  for  a 
hunter  of  his  prowess,  Mr.  Roosevelt 
has  announced  that  he  will  seek  the 
haughty  jaguar  of  the  jungle  and 
swipe  her  cubs  from  under  the  very 
jaws  of  the  she-lion.  It  is  already  ar- 
ranged. Rhodesia,  the  British  Afri- 
can territory  north  of  the  Transvaal, 


is  the  finest  big  game  country  in  the 
world,  and  the  devouring  hordes  of 
wild  beasts  vamp  over  the  veldt  in 
prodigious  numbers  and  with  infinite 
variation  of  horror.  After  his  pro- 
longed experience  with  the  "Elephant" 
that  kind  of  beast  would  be  stale  and 
tame.  Greater  things  are  sought; 
it  is  not  the  usual  and  ordi- 
nary stunts  made  famous  by  Ri- 
der Haggard  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  is 
setting  out  to  do.  No ;  he  will  at  last 
find  the  retired  liar  of  the  "jabber- 
wock"  some  "frabjous"  day;  should 
a  Megatherium  still  prowl  in  the  fast- 
nesses  of   some   dark,   deep   forest, — 


TEDDY    IN   AFRICA 


454 


WATSON'S  JEFFERSONIAN  MAGAZINE 


there  will  Teddy  await  him,  to  lasso 
and  drag  him  forth.  Nay,  more;  we 
would  confidently  expect  him  to  face 
and  subdue  an  Iambic  Hexameter, 
should  one  attack  him  never  so  vic- 
iously, and  higher  than  that  no  mortal 
valor  mounts.  He  has  solved  the 
problem  of  what  to  do  with  the  ex- 
presidents  we  have  loafing  around  on 
every  street  corner.  They  should  all 
a-slaying  go. 

Incidentally  and  casually  it  may  be 
remarked  that  fully  2,200,000  of  books 
which  he  is  to  write  pertaining  to  his 
experiences  in  Africa  are  sold  even 
before  he  sets  out  for  the  field  of  his 
mighty  achievements,  and  he  has 
cleaned  up  $150,000  on  the  idea  that 
he  thinks  of  going. 


The  Running  Mate. 

John  Worth  Kern,  sneaks  for  a  mo- 
ment into  the  limelight  and  somehow 
appeals  to  our  sympathy.  We  are  as 
sorry  for  him  as  we  would  be  for  the 
chorus-girl  whom  a  mouse  had  sent 
scuttling  out  upon  the  stage  all  un- 
prepared. He  seems  to  have  got  the 
nomination,  but  "the  hook"  with  it. 
He  is  from  Indiana,  whith  is  a  sadful 
confession  for  anyone  save  a  literary 
genius  to  make;  and  his  own  delega- 
tion tried  to  enthuse,  but  being  from 
Indiana,  likewise,  deponent  saith  their 
effort  could  not  be  called  a  "demon- 
stration" ;  and  his  sister  lumbered  in 
from  the  farm  the  day  afterwards 
and  heard  the  news  with  most  unsis- 
terly   composure,    not   to    say   uncon- 


(BY  "DOC  BIRD"  IN  DENVER  POST  OF  JULY  5.) 


A  SURVEY  OF  THE  WORLD 


455 


cern;  and  his  wife  "is  sorry!"  Added 
to  all  these  dampeners,  he  is  a  pal 
and  understudy  of  Tom  Taggart.  Mr. 
Kern  has  further  distinguished  him- 
self by  being  twice  defeated  in  his 
own  State  for  Governor.  Altogether, 
it  is  but  charitable  to  lead  the  deject- 
ed Mr.  Kern  back  into  a  kindly  seclu- 
sion. 

Benevolent  Assimilation  by  Hon.  Japan. 

From  statistics  compiled  covering 
the  past  year,  it  appears  that  opera- 
tions in  Corea  have  resulted  in  a  loss 
of  less  than  500  Japs,  as  against  about 
16,000  Coreans.  We  have  always 
heard  that  the  Japanese  were  the  po- 
litest people  in  the  world,  not  even 
excepting  the  French,  and  it  seems 
that  they  must  have  been  lavishly 
generous  in  pouring  ammunition  into 
the  estimable  enemy. 

It's  the  bugle  call  to  breakfast,  after 


all.  Corea  was  just  another  nation 
found  asleep  and  so  her  officious 
neighbor  got  busy  "awakening"  her. 
It  was  so  with  Japan  herself  fifty  or 
sixty  years  ago.  She  was  drowsing 
along  when  the  morning  call  sounded 
and  she  has  been  hustling  ever  since 
until  now  she  is  a  great  "world  pow- 
er." True,  her  masses  are  reduced 
to  most  hopeless  wretchedness  and  the 
burdens  of  taxation  are  almost  too 
great  to  be  borne,  but  the  imperial 
idea  is  triumphant.  China  is  being 
roused  from  her  slumber  of  Centu- 
ries to  a  career  she  certainly  did  not 
want,  perhaps  she  did  not  need.  So 
let  Corea  take  comfort  in  the  thought 
that  her  case  is  not  unusual.  She 
may  be  dispossessed  of  her  own  rights 
and  prerogatives,  but  she  will  in  time 
attain  the  heights  of  Occidental  civil- 
ization as  interpreted  by  an  imitative 
and  an  alien  race. 


456 


WATSOX'S  TEFFERSOXIAX  MAGAZIXE 


(T'- 


^ 


K 


General  Clement  A.  Evans. 

We  publish  an  excellent  snap-shot  of  Gen.  Evans,  who  on 
June  10th  last,  became  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Confed- 
erate veterans.  Me  has  well  won  and  worn  many  honors.  This 
highest  place  in  the  esteem  of  his  comrades  was  rightfully  his 
and  will  be  noblv  filled. 


THOS.  E.  WATSON'S  SPEECH  OF 
ACCEPTANCE 


One  of  the  most  fearful  statements  that  was  ever  made  is  that  "his- 
lory  repeats  itself."  Take  the  words  lightly,  and  they  make  no  very 
great  impression ;  study  them  deeply,  and  you  stand  appalled. 

The  clash  of  armies,  the  horrors  of  war,  the  carnage  which  spared 
neither  age  nor  sex — history  is  full  of  it,  and  when  "history  repeats 
itself,"  the  slopes  of  another  Gettysburg  will  run  red  with  blood,  the 
fiery  broom  will  sweep  other  Shenandoah  valleys,  and  other  Atlantas 
and  Columbias  will  be  fed  to  the  flames  on  some  other  "Sherman's  march 
to  the  sea." 

The  conquest  of  human  reason  by  the  priest;  the  reign  of  religious 
intolerance,  with  its  dungeon,  its  rack,  its  stake  for  the  independent 
thinker,  history  is  full  of  it;  and  zvhen  "history  repeats  itself,"  the  world 
will  have  once  more  lost  its  liberty  of  conscience,  will  again  hear  the 
shrieks  of  the  victims  of  inquisition,  will  again  shudder  with  fear  ana 
horror  as  some  other  Philip  of  Spain  slaughters  his  tens  of  thousands, 
some  other  Charles  of  France  fires  the  signal  gun  for  a  massacre  of  St. 
Bartholomew. 

The  establishmoiit  of  the  political  oligarchy,  the  use  of  legislative 
machinery  by  one  class  to  rob  the  others,  the  exploitation  of  the  unpriv- 
ileged by  the  privileged,  history  is  full  of  it ;  and  zvhen  "history  repeats 
itself,"  we  shall  again  have  the  rule  of  the  few  over  the  many,  the 
confiscation  of  the  property  of  the  unprivileged  under  forms  of  law,  and 
the  giving  to  systematized  pillage  the  sacred  name  of  government. 

Let  us  go  back  to  one  of  the  tragic  chapters  in  the  annals  of  the 
past.  It  may  be  that  a  study  of  that  chapter  will  arouse  us  to  an  appre- 
ciation of  the  dangers  which  have  come  upon  us.  We  return  to  the  year 
44  B.  C.  The  aristocracy  which  had  declared  war  on  Julius  Caesar  had 
been  overthrown.  For  six  months  this  great  soldier  and  lawgiver  of  an- 
tiquity had  been  at  work  reforming  the  Roman  system,  but  now  the 
Ides  of  March  had  come,  the  Ides  of  March  against  which  the  Sooth- 
sayer had  warned  him — the  Ides  of  March  had  come ! — and  the  daggers 
which  the  senatorial  conspirators  had  been  whetting  for  him  were  ready. 
Dull  is  the  imagination  which  can  not  picture  the  scene  as  Caesar  enters 
the  Senate  chamber,  goes,  without  suspicion,  to  his  accustomed  seat; 
is  surrounded  by  the  assassins,  every  one  of  whom  he  believes  to  be 
his  friend,  and  every  one  of  whom  had,  a  few  days  before,  taken  a 
solemn  oath  to  defend  his  life;  is  stabbed  from  behind,  and  springs  to 
his  feet,  to  fight,  looks  around  him  and  finds  that  he,  unarmed,  is  girdled 
by  armed  and  relentless  men ;  is  pierced  and  slashed  till  twenty-three 
wounds  are  spilling  his  life-blood;  realizes  that  the  end  has  come;  scorn.- 


458  WATSON'S  JEFFERSONIAN  MAGAZINE 

to  gratify  his  murderers  with  a  word  or  sign  of  fear,  covers  his  face 
with  his  mantle,  and  sinks  to  die  at  the  foot  of  Pompey's  statue. 

Why  did  Roman  aristocrats  kill  Julius  Caesar?  What  had  he  done 
to  Rome  that  the  Roman  nobles  should  take  his  life  ? 

He  had  abolished  imprisonment  for  debt  and  by  this  act  had  de- 
prived the  Roman  capitalist  of  his  power  to  keep  his  debtor  in  slavery. 

The  long  Civil  war  had  brought  about  a  great  fall  in  prices,  for  the 
rich  had  hoarded  their  money.  Caesar  declared  that  no  creditor  should 
seize  the  property  of  those  who  owed  him,  unless  it  was  taken  at  the 
same  price  it  would  have  brought  had  it  been  put  upon  the  market  before 
the  decline  in  values  set  in. 

In  Rome,  the  burdens  of  government  rested  most  heavily  on  those 
who  got  the  least  out  of  it,  and  most  lightly  upon  those  who  monopo- 
lized its  advantages.  Wise,  just  and  fearless,  Caesar  put  high  taxes  upon 
the  luxuries  of  life,  leaving  the  necessaries  untaxed. 

In  Rome  there  were  usurers  who  did  nothing  but  lend  money  and 
collect  interest.  They  engaged  in  no  other  business,  made  no  investments, 
paid  no  taxes,  contributed  nothing  to  the  wealth  and  well-being  of  the 
itate.  Caesar  wished  to  free  the  republic  of  these  parasites.  Under  his 
law  the  money-lender  was  forbidden  to  lend  more  than  twice  the  amount 
which  he  had  invested  in  real  estate ;  thus  the  usurer  was  forced  into 
the  class  of  investors  and  taxpayers. 

Great  landed  estates,  cultivated  by  slave  gangs,  were  the  curse  of 
Italy.  Caesar  compelled  every  proprietor  to  employ  free  labor,  to  the  ex- 
tent of  one-third  of  all  those  who  worked  for  him. 

Besides  this,  he  adopted  a  homestead  policy.  He  not  only  divided 
out  the  public  domain  among  the  citizens  who  had  no  homes,  but  inau- 
gurated the  policy  of  buying  lands  with  the  public  funds  for  the  pur- 
pose of  giving  homes  to  the  homeless. 

Roman  cities  were  thronged  with  the  unemployed.  Three  hundred 
thousand  of  the  poor  were  fed  from  the  public  granaries.  Caesar  cut 
off  150,000  names  from  the  lists  of  free  grain  distributees,  and  said  to 
them,  in  effect :  "Yonder  is  a  piece  of  land  offered  you  by  the  state ; 
go  to  it ;  stay  on  it ;  work  it,  and  learn  to  earn  bread  in  the  sweat  of 
your  face." 

Brutus  was  one  of  the  assassins  who  cut  Caesar  down,  and  Brutus 
was  a  money  lender  who  had  been  fattening  on  48  per  cent  interest. 
There  were  many  of  these  high-born  usurers,  and  their  wrath  was  in- 
tense when  Caesar  decreed  that  the  rate  of  interest  should  not  exceed 
12  per  cent,  and  that  there  should  be  no  such  thing  as  the  compounding 
of  interest. 

Caesar  revived  the  law  against  hoarding.  Any  capitalist  who  kept 
out  of  circulation  a  greater  sum  than  $3,000  became  a  criminal,  sub- 
ject to  severe  penalties.  The  idea  was,  that  money  should  circulate, 
that  it  was  created  for  no  other  purpose,  and  that  whoever  hoarded 
it,  thus  diminishing  the  available  supply,  causing  inconvenience  and  loss 
to  others,  committed  an  offense  against  his  fellow-man  and  a  crime 
against  the  state. 


THOS.   E.  WATSOX'S  SPEECH  OF  ACCEPTANXE  459 

Oh,  that  we  had  had  a  Ceesar  in  the  White  House  last  October,  when 
those  Wall  Street  rascals  drew  into  New  York  City  all  the  available 
cash  of  the  country,  hoarded  it,  and  created  the  panic,  which  swep. 
this  continent  like  a  withering  simoon! 

It  was  on  account  of  his  reform  measures  that  the  Roman  aristo- 
crats plotted  against  Caesar ;  hating  the  reforms,  they  murdered  the 
reformer. 

By  way  of  parenthesis,  let  me  say  that  Caesar  was  the  leader  of  the 
political  party,  whose  members  were  called  the  "Populares."  The  Latiti 
word  "Populares"  has  the  same  meaning  as  the  two  Greek  words,  out 
of  which  the  name  Democrats  was  coined.  If  you  were  asked  to  put 
into  English  the  exact  political  classification  of  Julius  Caesar,  you  would 
call  him  a  Democrat,  or  a  Populist,  it  being  left  to  you  to  say  which 
classic  derivation  you  preferred — the  Latin  or  the  Greek. 

"History  repeats  itself,"  and  today  we  have  in  our  own  Republic 
every  abuse  against  which  the  Roman  "Populares"  made  war. 

Our  public  domain  has  been  preyed  upon  by  millionaire  plunderers 
and  land-grabbing  corporations  until  the  American  people  have  been 
stripped  of  a  territory  larger  than  that  over  which  soars  the  Black  Eagle 
of  Germany.  Timber  thieves,  apparently  with  the  connivance  of  the  gov- 
ernment, have  been  allowed  to  devastate  such  mighty  forest  areas  that 
the  losses,  to  us  and  to  our  children's  children,  direct  and  indirect,  defy 
human  computation.  In  all  directions  the  terrific  energy  of  the  corpora- 
tion has  driven  the  public  off  the  public  domain.  Our  streets  have  been 
seized  by  telegraph,  telephone,  and  railroad  companies.  The  iron-horse 
monopolizes  the  main  line  of  public  travel,  and,  instead  of  belonging 
to  the  public,  as  it  should,  the  horse,  as  well  as  the  vehicle,  and  the 
road,  is  private  property.  Our  helpless  cities  are  not  permitted  to 
illuminate  themselves.  The  private  company  must  be  chartered  to  hold 
the  light  which  enables  the  public  to  walk  its  own  streets. 

In  other  civilized  countries  the  carriage  of  small  parcels  and  the 
use  of  the  telephone  and  telegraph  are  parts  of  the  Postal  service  and 
are  great  blessings  to  the  masses  of  the  people:  with  us  they  are  pri- 
vate monopolies  and  are  very  great  blessings  to  a  few  Capitalists. 

In  other  civilized  countries  the  public  owns,  and  operates,  the 
railroads :  with  us  there  is  as  yet  fatuous  contentment  with  a  system  of 
Private  ownership  which  taxes  us  for  dividends  upon  $7,000,000,000  oi 
watered  securities  and  which  persists  in  killing  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren rather  than  go  to  the  expense  of  adopting  the  safety  appliances 
which  would  prevent  the  butcheries. 

The  historian,  wishing  to  impress  us  with  the  wealth  and  extrava- 
gance of  the  Roman  aristocracy,  tells  us  that  so  large  a  sum  as  $1,200 
was  sometimes  paid  for  a  horse,  and  $200,000  for  a  palace.  We  are 
then  given  a  list  of  Roman  millionaires,  and  it  appears  that  these  plu- 
tocrats were  worth  from  One  million  to  Twelve  million  dollars.  Pom- 
pey  the  Great,  who  had  conquered  and  plundered  provinces  larger  than 
continental  Europe,  left  property  valued  at  $3,500,000.  Crassus,  the 
richest  of  all  the  Roman  nabobs,  left  a   fortune  of  $12,000,000. 


460  WATSON'S  JEFFERSOXIAN  MAGAZINE 

Suppose  you  compare  the  plutocracy  of  Rome  to  that  of  these 
United  States.  J.  P.  2^Iorgan  has  more  money  invested  in  art  treas- 
ures, alone,  than  the  richest  of  all  the  Romans  was  worth.  The  "sum- 
mer cottage"  of  Cornelius  Vanderbilt  cost  $3,000,000,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  land  and  the  furnishings.  John  D.  Rockefeller's  yearly  income  is 
greater  than  was  the  entire  fortune  of  the  richest  Roman.  Enormous- 
as  were  the  treasures  which  Pizarro's  tortures  forced  from  the  Inca  of 
Peru,  they  are  dwarfed  by  the  sums  which  E.  H.  Harriman  and  his 
gang  have  taken  from  the  Union  Pacific,  the  Central  Pacific,  and  the 
Chicago  &  Alton. 

Great  as  was  the  spoil  of  Cortez  in  the  Conquest  of  IMexico,  it  was 
less  than  Jay  Gould  and  his  son  George  gathered  together  in  the  Con- 
quest of  American  railways, 

Fron^  one  comparatively  small  railroad  system,  the  Central  of 
Georgia,  J.  P.  Morgan  and  a  choice  assortment  of  participating  thieves,, 
took  and  carried  away  a  larger  sum  than  Caesar  wrung  from  conquered 
Gaul.  The  victorious  Sylla  astonished  historians  by  levying  a  fine  of 
$25,000,000  upon  the  rich  cities  of  Greece.  Our  Sugar  Trust  levied  an 
annual  fine  of  twice  that  amount  upon  this  Republic  a  few  years  ago,, 
to  recoup  itself  for  a  contribution  of  $500,000  which  it  had  made  to 
the  campaign  fund  of  the  Democratic  party.  By  judiciously  placing- 
its  contributions  with  both  the  old  parties,  the  Steel  Trust  gets  the  privi- 
lege to  so  arrange  our  Tariff  schedules  as  to  extort  from  us,  every  year,, 
net  profits  to  an  amount  that  is  ten  times  larger  than  the  entire  revenue 
of  the  Roman  Republic. 

The  Vanderbilt  family,  through  franchise  grabbing  and  stock  wa- 
tering operations,  have  robbed  the  American  people  of  huger  sums  than 
Alexander  the  Great  harvested  by  his  conquest  of  the  opulent  East. 

Antiquity  was  scandalized  when  Cleopatra  dissolved  and  drank  a 
pearl  valued  at  $400,000;  and  historians  conmrent  in  a  tone  of  rebuke 
upon  the  luxuries  of  Lucullus,  who  spent  $8,500  on  a  feast.  When  one 
of  our  American  millionaires  throws  open  the  grand  ball-room  for  a 
night  of  revelry,  the  ftoiucrs  cost  more  than  the  feast  of  Lucullus.  And 
when  one  of  our  Cleopatras  fancies  that  she  i»  fascinated  by  some  roving 
Mark  Antony — some  English  Duke,  Italian  Prince,  French  Count,  or 
Hungarian  sneeze-weed — she  thinks  nothing  of  spending  from  One  to 
Five  million  dollars  on  the  "pearl."  In  Cleopatra's  case,  the  gem  was 
merely  a  casual  product  of  nature ;  in  the  modern  instances  every  dollar 
that  goes  abroad  to  pay  for  foreign  titles,  and  ministers  to  the  depraved 
appetites  of  aristocratic  debauches,  is  the  product  of  the  American  la- 
borer's toil. 

Thomas  F.  Ryan  and  August  Belmont,  two  Democrats  of  master- 
ful influence  in  the  councils  of  the  Democratic  party,  looted  the  trac- 
tion lines  of  New  York  City  of  bigger  sums  than  Warren  Hastings 
took  from  the  princes  of  Hindustan.  Great  Britain  was  indignant  at 
the  rapacity  of  Hastings,  and  her  greatest  orators — Burke,  Sheridan, 
Fox — thundered  against  him  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Lords,  burning 
him  with  words  of  invective  that  will  live  forever.  Ryan  and  Belmont 
<iid  not  ravage  a  foreign  state,  nor  plunder  people  of  a  different  race. 


THOS.   E.  WATSON'S  SPEECH  OF  ACCEPTANCE  461 

as  Hastings  did ;  they  robbed  the  people  of  their  own  city,  men  and 
women  of  the  same  race  as  themselves,  and  no  impeachment  for  high 
crimes  and  misdemeanors  has  brought  them  to  the  bar  of  any  tribunal 
which  has  power  to  punish.  Warren  Hastings  despoiled  the  idle  rich 
of  India — grandees  who  had  themselves  plundered  their  own  people. 
Ryan  and  Belmont  did  not  plunder  the  idle  rich !  No !  They  put  their 
greedy  hands  upon  the  scanty  earnings  of  millions  of  workmen  and 
work  women  of  New  York  city,  and  heaped  up  riches  for  themselves, 
mountain  high,  by  robbing  the  industrious  poor.  But  who  talks  of  in- 
dicting such  Democratic  criminals  as  Ryan  and  Belmont?  Who  dreams 
of  punishing  such  Republican  criminals  as  Morgan  and  Harriman? 
Weaklings  that  we  are!  We  not  only  crouch  before  the  gigantic  law- 
breakers, but  allow  them  to  run  our  government.  All  that  zve  can  do  is 
to  punish  such  offenses  as  petit  larceny.  Let  the  naked  steal  something 
to  wear;  let  the  hungry  steal  something  to  eat;  let  the  miserable  wretch, 
shivering  with  wintry  cold,  steal  something  to  feed  the  fire — and  we 
savagely  clutch  these  poor  creatures,  and  fling  them  to  the  lions  of  the 
law.  But  the  men  who  steal  railroads,  the  Trust-builders,  who  tram- 
ple upon  every  statute  of  the  penal  code  in  their  march  to  monopoly 
and  to  millions — these  are  the  men  before  whom  we  stand  helpless  and 
afraid.  There  is  not  an  intelligent,  well-informed  citizen  of  the  coun- 
try, who  does  not  know  that,  through  the  machinery  of  both  old  par- 
ties, these  millionaire  lawbreakers,  who  ought  to  be  behind  the  bars, 
dictate  our  legislation,  shape  our  foreign  and  domestic  policies,  and 
control  our  fate. 

They  talk  to  us  of  foreign  foes,  and  some  of  our  statesmen  are 
wild  in  their  clamors  for  a  Billion  Dollar  navy.  But,  tell  me  what 
greater  harm  a  foreign  foe  could  inflict  upon  us  than  we  are  suff'ering 
from  the  foe  within  the  gates? 

Our  Civil  War  was  fierce  and  bloody,  truly  a  cruel  war,  and  it 
lasted  four  long,  long  years.  Around  many  and  many  a  wife  it  threw 
the  sombre  weeds  of  widowhood;  from  the  lips  of  many  and  many  a 
child  it  drew  the  wail  of  orphanage.  Yet  we  buried  fewer  dead,  and 
carried  to  the  hospitals  fewer  wounded,  than  we  now  lose  every  four 
years,  to  the  remorseless  greed  of  capitalism.  Count  up  the  victims 
in  mine,  mill,  and  factory;  count  up  the  victims  that  have  strewn  the 
lines  of  our  railroads ;  count  up  the  human  wrecks  of  the  sweatshops, 
the  stock  yards,  the  sugar  refineries  and  the  smelting  works;  count  up 
what  you  have  lost  to  those  Christians  who  have  taken  the  little  chil- 
dren that  Jesus  loved,  wrung  dividends  out  of  their  little  bodies,  and', 
then  tossed  them  upon  the  scrap  heap;  count  up  all  these  for  four  years,, 
and  you  will  reach  a  frightful  total,  a  ghastly  total,  wdiich  exceeds  the 
losses  of  our  Civil  War. 

Make  the  comparison  from  an  economic  point  of  view.  This  coun- 
try, as  a  whole,  was  in  a  happier,  healthier  condition  at  the  close  of  the 
Civil  War  than  it  is  right  now.  There  were  no  men  out  of  work ;  there 
was  not  a  shameful  "bread  line"  or  "soup  kitchen"  in  America.  Neither 
in  the  North  nor  in  the  South  was  there  a  constantly  growing  army  of 
tramps,   dead-beats,   and   human   derelicts.      We    had    fewer   abandoned 


462  WATSOX'S  JEFFERSOXIAX  MAGAZIXE 

farms  then  than  now ;  we  had  practically  no  beggars ;  we  had  few  mil- 
lionaires and  few  paupers.  A  vast  amount  of  paper  money,  issued  by 
the  Government,  was  in  circulation,  and  this  abundant  currency  was 
rushing  along  the  channels  of  trade,  like  an  elixir  of  life,  carrying  buoy- 
ant strength  to  the  uttermost  extremities  of  the  Industrial  system.  On 
every  hill-top  rang  out  the  clarion  call  of  enterprise ;  from  every  valley 
rose  the  hum  of  hopeful  industry. 

Cities  were  seen  rising  from  the  ashes,  more  resplendent  than  be- 
fore the  war;  farms  were  once  again  snowy  with  cotton,  or  golden 
with  grain. 

In  1866,  the  industrial  situation  was  sunlit;  the  black  thunder 
clouds  had  rolled  away,  and  the  skies  were  clear ;  we  were  moving  to- 
ward the  future  with  the  quick,  confident  step  of  those  who  feel  that 
they  are  marching  into  the  daivn. 

In  1866,  it  was  inconceivable  that  the  day  would  ever  come,  in 
this  land,  whose  wealth-producers  have  created  riches  to  the  amount 
of  $110,000,000,000,  when  we  should  find  three  millions  of  toilers  un- 
employed ;  should  see  them  lift  up  their  empty  hands  and  beg,  not  for 
charity — oh,  no! — but   for  zcork,  and  get  neither  charity  nor  work. 

What  was  it,  oh  what  was  it !  that  cast  the  first  shadow  over  the 
radiant  landscape,  that  gave  the  first  check  to  the  industrial  army  which 
was  advancing  under  the  white  banners  of  peace?  What  was  it  that 
drove  back  the  rising  tide  of  prosperity  and  strewed  human  wreckage 
all  along  the  coast?  Did  idleness  seize  the  workers?  Did  the  clouds 
v^ithhold  the  rain?     Did  the  earth  refuse  its  increase?  No!  no! 

Such  bountiful  harvests  never  blessed  a  people  as  those  which  we 
have  reaped.     X^ever  in  this  world ! 

How  then,  in  the  name  of  the  Most  High,  how  was  it  that  the 
cup  of  hope  was  dashed  to  the  ground  and  the  word  Poverty,  Poverty, 
Poverty,  stamped  upon  so  many  millions  of  people  in  the  richest  land 
upon  which  the  sun  ever  shone? 

The  soldiers  of  the  Union  and  the  Confederacy  had  hardly  stacked 
arms  before  the  ravenous  financiers  of  the  big  cities,  East  and  North, 
organized  to  raid  the  industries  of  the  country  with  a  ferocious  thor- 
oughness which  cared  as  little  for  those  who  wore  the  Blue  as  for  those 
who  wore  the  Gray.  With  every  tool  known  to  labor,  wealth  was 
produced  by  the  workers,  working  in  all  the  varied  fields  of  production^ 
The  conspiring  financiers  worked  in  one  field,  only.  They  worked  in 
Washington  City.  They  worked  on  Congress.  They  wanted  laws 
which  would  give  to  them  the  lion's  share  of  all  that  should  be  pro- 
duced in  every  place  where  labor  toiled.  They  wanted  acts  of  Con- 
gress which  would  Confiscate  other  people's  property  and  transfer  it  to 
themselves. 

They  got  what  they  wanted.  And  that,  in  brief,  is  the  reason  why 
those  who  concentrate  their  energies  upon  the  law-making,  get  rich  and 
stay  rich,  while  those  who  concentrate  their  energies  upon  crop-making 
get  poor  and  stay  poor. 

The  destruction  of  nearly  Two  Thousand  Million  Dollars  of  the 
paper   money  of  the   government,   which   was   such   a   blessing   to  the 


THOS.  E.  WATSON'S  SPEECH  OF  ACCEPTANCE  463 

people,  but  which  was  so  much  in  the  way  of  the  plotting  financiers ;  the 
desolating  laws  of  contraction,  which  at  every  step  lowered  the  price  of 
products  and  elevated  the  price  of  money;  the  infamous  deals  in  bonds 
by  which  the  Wall  Streeters  periodically  sheared  the  people  as  the 
Shepherd  shears  his  sheep ;  the  ever  advancing  demands  of  special  privi- 
lege, whose  greedy  beggars  could  never  get  enough ;  the  constant  increase 
of  taxation  which  has  reached  no  Pillars  of  Hercules  beyond  which  it 
dares  not  sail;  the  unequal  distribution  of  the  burdens  and  the  benefits 
of  government — the  corporations  getting  most  of  the  benefits  and  the 
common  people  most  of  the  burdens — these  are  the  main  causes  which 
have  brought  us  to  such  a  pass  that  the  unprivileged  millions  live  ever 
within  the  shadow  of  poverty,  and  are  never  certain,  this  month,  that 
the  next  will  not  bring  the  wolf  of  want  to  howl  at  the  door. 

The  Trusts. 

For  several  years,  a  Big  Stick  President,  Teddy  the  Strenuous, 
has  been  engaged  in  the  alleged  work  of  Trust-busting.  Where's 
your  busted  Trust?  Which  one  of  them  has  been  put  out  of  busi- 
ness? You  can  not  name  it.  How  can  a  President,  who  has  been 
"standing  pat"  with  the  Tariff  standpatters  do  any  effective  trust- 
busting?  You  might  as  well  try  to  purge  and  clarify  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  without  diverting  the  Mississippi.  As  long  as  you  "stand 
pat"  as  to  the  River,  the  Gulf  will  "stand  pat"  in  spite  of  you. 
Populism  contends  that  the  Trusts  are  the  natural  offspring  of 
monopoly  and  that  the  only  way  to  destroy  a  Trust  is  to  kill  the 
monopoly.  Put  on  the  free  list  those  articles  manufactured  or  han- 
dled by  the  Trusts.     The  foreign  competitor  will  do  the  rest. 

We  American  people — patriotic  idiots  that  we  are — give  our  hearty 
support  to  a  protective  policy,  a  Tariff'  system,  which  is  a  crushing 
load  to  everybody — with  two  exceptions.  The  first  exception  is,  of 
course,  the  American  manufacturer,  who  exploits  the  home  market 
with  his  Trust;  the  second  is  the  foreigner,  who  buys  American  goods 
cheaper  than  we  can  buy  them,  cheaper  than  he  can  buy  the  manufac- 
tured goods  of  his  own  country. 

To  our  manufacturers  we  grant  legislative  favors  which  enable  them 
to  so  exploit  the  victims  of  the  home-market  monopoly  that,  after  put- 
ting aside  a  profit  of  eight  per  cent  upon  the  money  invested,  they 
have  left,  as  net  profits,  $2,672,000,000— a  sum  three  times  larger  than 
the  gross  revenue  of  Great  Britain! 

It  is  a  literal  fact  that  after  the  beneficiaries  of  special  privilege 
get  their  portions  of  the  annual  increase  of  the  nation's  wealth,  none  of 
it  is  left.  The  American  workman  brings  forth  every  year  the  prodi- 
gious sum  of  Four  and  a  Half  Billions  of  Dollars.  Yet,  when  we 
come  to  examine  the  official  reports  published  by  the  Government,  the 
terrible  fact  appears  that  the  specially  privileged  have  taken  the  en- 
tire amount.  A  bare  living  is  all  that  is  left  for  the  workman  of  town 
and  country,  while  to  the  beneficiaries  of  our  damnable  class  laws  has 
been  awarded  wealth  that  staggers  human  comprehension.  If  it  isn't 
wrong— if  it  isn't  crime  against  humanity,  if  it  isn't  an  injustice  which 


464  WATSON'S  JEFFERSONIAN  MAGAZINE 

cries  aloud  to  high  heaven,  and  which,  unless  righted,  will  convulse  this 
country  with  the  bloodiest  revolution  that  ever  shook  the  world,  then 
all  my  reading  and  study  have  taught  me  nothing. 

The   Money   Question. 

Last  Fall  there  was  a  panic,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  we  had  a 
greater  amount  of  material  wealth  than  ever  before.  Bankruptcy  went 
stalking  through  the  land,  and  the  cry  of  distress  rang  from  sea  to  sea. 
How  did  our  Republican  President — our  friend  of  the  "Big  Stick" — deal 
with  the  panic  ?  He  followed  precedent,  doing  just  what  our  Democratic 
President,  Mr.  Cleveland,  had  done  in  1893.  J.  P.  Morgan  was  Com- 
mander-in-chief of  the  Wall  street  "patriots"  who  forced  the  panic, 
last  Fall,  just  as  he  was  in  1893;  and  to  Morgan,  Roosevelt's  Admin- 
istration virtually  said,  as  Mr.  Cleveland  had  said,  in  1893 : 

"If  nothing  else  but  bonds  will  do  you,  come  and  get  the  bonds!" 

What  brought  on  the  panic  of  1907?  The  volume  of  real  money 
has  been  so  greatly  lessened,  in  comparison  to  the  country's  need  for 
money,  that  it  is  not  difficult  to  "corner"  the  available  supply.  New 
York  did  this  last  Fall.  Credits  of  all  sorts  had  been  recklessly  ex- 
tended, and  when  real  money  was  needed.  New  York  was  found  to  be 
in  possession  of  it,  and  New  York  held  on  to  it.  Neither  banks  nor 
individuals  could  get  back  their  own  money  from  New  York  without 
paying  an  extortionate  price  for  it.  How  could  the  situation  have  been 
relieved? 

The  government  should  have  broken  the  New  York  corner  on 
money  by  issuing  its  own  treasury  notes — just  as  Andrew  Jackson  did 
in  1837. 

When  the  British  were  being  led  into  that  death  trap  at  New  Or- 
leans in  1815  and  their  whole  campaign  was  falling  into  wreck  and 
ruin,  one  of  the  Generals  who  had  served  under  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton in  Portugal  and  Spain,  cried  out :    "Oh,  for  an  hour  of  the  old  Duke!" 

There  have  been  at  least  two  occasions  when  the  American  people 
might  have  cried :  "Oh,  for  an  hour  of  the  grim  warrior  who  made  that 
British  General  feel  the  need  of  the  Old  Duke!  Oh,  for  an  hour  of 
Andrew  Jackson!" 

One  of  these  occasions  was  when,  in  1893,  a  so-called  Democratic 
president  exclaimed,  in  dismay:  "My  God,  Oates,  the  bankers  have 
got  the  Government  by  the  leg!" 

The  other  time  was  last  winter,  when  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury was  handing  out  those  Panama  bonds — a  violation  of  law  for 
which  he  ought  to  have  been  impeached,  just  as  Mr.  Carlisle  should 
have  been  impeached,  in  1893,  when  the  "endless  chain"  was  filling  Wall 
Street's  ravenous  maw  with  unlawfully  issued  bonds! 

By  Treasury  rulings  and  by  Acts  of  Congress  our  money  system 
has  been  revolutionized.  The  system  of  the  Constitution  has  been  set 
aside.  The  Government  has  been  made  to  abdicate  one  of  its  most  im- 
portant functions.  It  would  not  be  more  dangerous  to  delegate  to  pri- 
vate individuals  the  right  to  declare  war  and  make  treaties,  than  it  if 


THOS.  E.  WATSON'S  SPEECH  OF  ACCEPTANCE  465 

to  delegate  the  power  to  control  the  creation  and  distribution  of  the 
National  currency. 

Never  did  any  Government  surrender  its  royal  prerogative  of  creat- 
ing money,  until  the  goldsmiths  of  London  bribed  a  King's  paramour 
to  wheedle  him  into  granting  that  fatal  concession.  As  a  matter  of 
historical  fact,  the  monstrous  usurpation  of  our  money  lending  class  had 
its  foul  origin  in  the  disgraceful  relations  which  gave  Barbara  Villiers 
her  power  over  Charles  the  Second. 

Our  forefathers,  in  framing  the  Constitution,  denied  to  the  states 
the  power  to  make  anything  but  gold  and  silver  a  legal  tender  of  pay- 
ment of  debts,  yet,  today,  six  thousand  National  bankers,  private  citi- 
zens though  they  are,  practically  do  what  the  Constitution  forbids  the 
states  to  do.     To  the  extent  of  Six  Hundred  Million  Dollars,  they  aU 
ready   have   their   personal   notes   in   circulation   as  money;   under   the 
Aldrich-Vreeland  bill,  they  are  given  the  right  to  issue  an  additional 
Five  Hundred  Million.     Think  of  it!     Morgan,  Ryan,  Belmont,  Rock- 
efeller,   Harriman   are   national   bankers,    as   well   as   railroad   owners. 
Under' this  new  law,  thev,  as  bankers,  can  monetise  the  securities  ivhich 
they  issue  as  railroad  owners.    You  can  not  monetize  land,  nor  cotton 
nor  wheat   nor  corn,  nor  merchandize ;  but  you  can  monetize  any  sort  of 
railroad  bonds  which  have  been  gathered  up  by  the  banking  association 
and  which  the   Secretary  of  the  Treasury   can  be   persuaded  to   look 
upon  with  favor.     Nor  is  this  the  worst  of  it.     When  they  are  given 
the  power  to  expand  and  contract  the  currency  as  the  Aldnch-Vreeland 
bill  gives  it,  they  can  not  only  send  prices  up  or  down,  but  can  pre- 
cipitate a  panic  whenever  it  is  to  their  interest  to  do  so.     Thus  our 
Government  has  deliberately  given  Wall  Street  almost  absolute  power 
over  the  85,000,000  people  of  our  Republic. 

Who  would  not  be  shocked  beyond  expression  if  the  Government 
should  delegate  any  other  of  its  sovereign  functions  to  private  persons, 
to  be  exploited  for  private  gain?  How  long  would  it  be  before  the 
flao-s  of  revolt  would  be  unfurled  from  the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf,  and  from 
Oc'^ean  to  Ocean,  if  a  few  of  our  money  Kings  were  allowed  to  handle 
our  Army  and  Navy?  Such  a  situation  is  unthinkable.  Yet  we  have  its 
exact  parallel— with  no  less   terrible   consequences— in  the   domination 

of  these  bankers. 

Search  ever  so  diligently  throughout  the  vast  storehouse  of  nature 
and  you  will  find  no  such  a  thing  as  money.  Never  did  it  exist  unti 
Governments  called  it  into  life.  Nature  doesn't  produce  armies;  it 
merely  provides  the  raw  material.  Nature  does  not  produce  navies;  it 
only  supplies  the  raw  material.  Just  as  it  has  ever  been  a  govern- 
mental function  to  create  armies  and  navies,  so  it  ever  has  been  a 
Governmental   function   to   create   money. 

To  supply  the  nation  with  its  currency  it  not  only  the  Govern- 
ment's prerogative,  but  its  high  and  solemn  duty^  It  is  a  part  of  the 
public  domain,  in  the  loftiest  and  truest  sense.  The  bankers  have  in- 
vaded it  and  entrenched  themselves  upon  it.  Let  the  Government 
drive  out  the  trespassers  and  reclaim  the  public  domam.  Let  the  Gov- 
ernment itself  create  all  the  money.    Every  dollar  thus  called  mto  being 


466  WATSON'S  JEFFERSONIAN  MAGAZINE 

will  have  for  its  security  the  law  of  Legal  Tender,  the  industrial  de- 
mands of  the  entire  country  and  the  wealth  of  all  the  people 

The  happiest  era  in  the  history  of  our  Republic  was  the  decade 
which  preceded  the  Civil  War.  The  principles  of  Jackson  and  Jefferson 
were  supreme.  What  Populism  is  trying  to  .do,  is  to  bring  back  the 
ascendency  of  these  principles,  so  that  our  people  may  again  be  pros- 
perous and  free  and  happy. 

Taking  advantage  of  the  Civil  War;  taking  advantage  of  the  sec- 
tional passions  which  burned  so  long  and  so  fiercely;  taking  advantage 
of  the  wickedness  and  woe  of  the  Reconstruction  period;  these  "non- 
combatant"  financiers,  actuated  by  the  same  spirit  as  that  which  sends 
the  night  prowler  to  the  battlefield  to  rob  the  dead,  contrived  the  cun- 
ning system  of  finance  which  shackles  our  commerce  and  despoils  our 
labor. 

Torn  by  sectional  prejudice  and  political  strife,  the  people  on  both 
sides,  North  and  South,  were  unconscious  of  the  vicious,  vandal  laws 
which  were  being  put  upon  the  Statute  books. 

Shall  sectional  prejudice  always  keep  us  blind  to  these  facts?  Shall 
political   agitation   always   deafen   us   to   the  Voice  of   Truth? 

God  forbid ! 

May  the  ignorant  masses  learn;  may  the  sleeping  masses  w^ake  up;- 
may  the  abject  masses  get  the  stoop  out  of  their  backs;  may  the  over- 
burdened masses  come  to  know  and  to  feel  that  their  burdens  are  not 
God-made,  but  man-made ;  and  may  the  hearts  of  the  people  be  once 
again  filled  and  thrilled  by  the  grand  old  principle  of  Anglo-Saxon 
manhood — it  is  better  to  die  the  death  of  the  brave  and  the  free  than 
to  lead  the  life  of  the  coward  and  the  slave ! 

The  Federal  Judiciary. 

In  a  nicely  balanced  systern  like  ours,  where  the  States  revolve, 
each  in  its  own  orbit,  around  thei  great  central  sun,  the  Federal  GoKf 
ernment,  it  means  governmental  chaos  if  one  of  the  States  leaves  its 
appointed  sphere,  or  if  the  Central  Government  moves  out  of  its  Coji- 
stitutional  position. 

The  original  thirteen  colonies  were  independent  of  each  other. 
When  Great  Britain  acknowledged  their  independence,  she  named  each 
one,  separately,  as  an  independent  State.  The  Old  Confederation  w^as 
a  League  of  Sovereigns.  When  the  more  perfect  Union  \yas  formed, 
under  the  Constitution  of  1787,  it  became  necessary  to  establish  a  trib- 
unal which  should  have  authority  to  set  aside  the  law  of  a  State  when 
such  law  violated  the  constitution. 

To  preserve  the  dignity  of  the  States  and  the  uniformity  of  de- 
cisions, it  was  provided  in  the  Judiciary  Act  of  1789,  that  the  test  of 
the  Constitutionality  of  a  State  law  should  first  be  made  in  the  State 
Courts  of  the  State  who.se  law  was  challenged,  and  that  if  the  State 
Courts  refused  to  set  aside  the  statute  in  question,  an  appeal  might  be 
taken  from  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  to  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States. 


THOS.   E.  WATSON'S  SPEECH  OF  ACCEPTANCE  467 

That  method  of  testing  the  Constitutionality  of  a  state  law  has 
never  been  changed  by  Congress,  nor  by  any  amendment  to  the  Fed- 
eral Constitution.  It  is  the  law  of  the  land  today.  Previous  to  the 
Civil  War,  no  State  law  was  ever  attacked  in  any  other  manner. 

Where  do  the  federal  judges  of  District  Courts  get  their  authority 
to  enjoin  Governors  and  suspend  the  operation  of  State  laws,  as  they 
have  been  doing  since  the  Civil  War?  What  line  of  the  Revised  Stat- 
utes gives  these  lower  federal  courts  any  such  jurisdiction?  What 
clause  in  the  Constitution  justifies  them? 

It  can  not  be  found.  It  does  not  exist.  The  act  of  the  federal 
courts  that  have  been  enjoining  State  authorities,  annulling  State  law 
and  arrogating  to  themselves  the  right  to  ])ut  a  veto  on  State  legisla- 
tion, is  nothing  in  the  world  but  the  encroaching  audacity  of  the  cor- 
porations, acting  through  the  servility  of  the  judge ! 

The  Eleventh  Amendment  to  the  Constitution  has  no  other  pur- 
pose than  to  protect  the  States  from  just  such  outrageous  wrongs  and 
humiliations  as  they  have  been  subjected  to  by  corporation  attorneys, 
presiding  as  judges,  during  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years. 

If  the  laws  of  the  State  are  wrong,  why  can  not  they  be  attacked 
first  in  the  State  Courts,  as  the  Judiciar)?-  Act  of  1789  provides?  If 
the  State  Courts  uphold  an  Act  of  the  Legislature  which  is  in  conflict 
with  the  Constitution,  redress  can  be  had  by  an  appeal  to  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States. 

The  original  thirteen  independent  States  which  agreed  to  the  "more 
perfect  union"  would  never  have  surrendered  their  sovereignty  to  any 
greater  extent  than  that. 

A  law  of  Georgia  which  has  never  been  repealed  emphatically  com- 
manded the  Governor  of  the  State  to  refuse  to  accept  service  in  any  case 
brought  against  the  State  in  the  Federal  Courts  by  private  individuals. 

This  Legislative  Act  shows  the  spirit  of  our  ancestors.  So  far  have 
we  wandered  from  old  landmarks,  so  indififerent  have  we  become  to  the 
great  principles  upon  which  our  Government  is  founded,  that  neither 
the  Legislature  nor  the  people  made  an  outcry  last  year  when  a  private 
corporation,  which  was  called  into  life  by  the  laws  of  this  State,  haled 
the  State  of  Georgia  to  a  lower  federal  court  and  demanded  that  the 
Sovereign  State  show  cause  to  this  federal  judge,  why  one  of  her  laws 
should  not  be  torn  out  of  the  books,  by  the  judge  of  this  inferior  fed- 
eral court. 

The  Governor  accepted  service,  went  into  that  inferior  federal 
court,  and  earnestly  implored  the  judge  to  allow  the  grand  old  State 
of  Georgia — one  of  the  original  thirteen — to  carry  on  her  State  Gov- 
ernment ! 

If  ever  I  am  President  of  this  Republic,  I  promise  you  one  thing: 
That  these  corporation  henchmen,  acting  as  federal  judges,  are  going  to 
get  such  a  call-down  as  will  make  them  glad  to  scurry  back  to  their 
Constitutional  sphere.  To  accomplish  this,  nothing  more  is  necessary 
than  that  the  Executive  power  shall  assert  itself  and  restore  the  bal- 
ance between  the  Executive,  the  Legislative  and  the  Judicial  Depart- 
ments.    If  I  should  represent  the  Chief  Executive  power,  the  manner 


468  WATSON'S  JEFFERSONIAN  MAGAZINE 

in  which  it  will  be  asserted  will  make  good  reading  for  future  genera- 
tions. 

The  Teutonic  People:     Never  Patient  Serfs 

The  Latins  sunk  under  the  weight  of  Special  Privilege.  On  the 
luminous  pages  of  Gibbon  you  read  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  Rome. 
But  we  Americans  are  descendants  of  the  Teutonic  people — a  stronger 
race  than  the  Latins.  We  are  the  sons  of  the  men  who  could  never 
be  conquered  by  Rome.  It  was  the  victory  of  our  heroic  ancestors  in. 
the  woods  of  Germany — annihilating  the  Roman  force — that  called  to 
the  lips  of  the  Emperor  Augustus  the  cry :  "Oh,  Varus,  give  me  back 
my  legions !" 

It  was  the  Teuton  who  was  hired  to  fight  the  battles  of  Rome,  when 
she  was  no  longer  able  to  fight  them  herself.  It  was  the  Teuton  who 
finally  became  tired  of  upholding  the  rotten  Empire  of  the  Caesars,  and 
who  helped  divide  it  out  among  better  men.  It  was  the  Teuton  who 
met  the  shock  of  the  invading  hordes  of  Mahomet,  rescued  Europe 
from  the  Crescent  and  held  it  for  the  Cross.  It  was  the  Teuton  who 
battled  against  the  elements  of  chaos,  in  the  Dark  Ages,  and  came  forth 
triumphant,  with  the  great  lines  of  social  order  slowly  taking  their 
place  around  him,  and  the  light  of  dawning  civilization  on  the  tip 
of  his  spear. 

The  women  of  the  East,  taken  captive  in  war,  wore  lightly  the 
chains  which  Roman  masters  placed  upon  them.  They  had  been  slaves 
at  home,  mere  ministers  to  sensuality,  and  to  them  a  change  of  serag- 
lios was  not  a  matter  of  vital  concern.  But  the  women  of  the  West, 
they  from  whom  come  to  us  our  mothers,  wives,  sisters — whenever  the 
Teuton  soldiers  had  lost  a  fight,  and  the  legions  of  Rome  were  lords 
of  the  vanquished,  the  Teuton  women,  who  had  followed  their  loved 
ones  to  the  war,  slew  themselves  rather  than  yield  to  Roman  lust. 
Glorious  women  of  the  West !  "Fashioned  in  Paradise,"  wreathed  in 
graces  and  virtues  like  blossoms  plucked  in  the  green  fields  of  Eden,  "led 
down  to  earth  by  angels  along  a  pathway  of  stars — to  be  the  joy,  the 
blessing,  the  inspiration  of  noble  men." 

Sons  of  such  women  were  never  meant  for  slaves,  nor  have  they 
ever  patiently  endured  the  yoke  of  any  servitude.     In  spite  of  strong 
walled  castles  and  mail-clad  knights,  our  ancestors  broke  down  the  mili- 
tary aristocracy  which  had  ridden  over  them  and  despoiled  them  in  the 
Feudal  Ages. 

In  spite  of  Norman  craft  and  Norman  valor,  our  ancestors  brought 
tyrannical  kings  to  their  knees  and  wrenched  from  their  reluctant  hands 
the  Charters  which  have  been  the  cradles  of  modern  Democracy. 

And  if  zve  tamely  submit  to  the  financial  aristocracy  which  erects 
its  strongholds  upon  the  heights  of  Special  Privilege  and  from  these 
lofty  battlements  sends  forth  the  marauding  statutes  that  hold  us  up 
on  every  highway  and  rob  us  of  what  is  ours — if  7be  yield  to  these 
insolent  and  insatiable  plutocrats  WITHOUT  A  FIGHT,  we  will  be  the 
first  branch  of  the  great  Teutonic  family  that  ever  disgraced  itself  by 
such  a  pusillanimous  surrender. 


THOS.   E.  WATSON'S  SPEECH  OF  ACCEPTANCE  469 

I,  for  one,  am  proud  of  a  record  of  prolonged,  consistent,  and 
determined  battle  against  the  infamous  class  legislation  whose  yoke  we 
bear.  And  because  of  this  record  and  because  my  comrades  call  me, 
and  because  of  the  memory  of  the  thousands  of  the  men  of  the  Old 
Guard  of  Populism  who  as  long  as  they  lived  stood  by  me,  and  believed 
in  me  and  loved  me,  and  because  the  monitor  that  speaks  to  me  from 
within  says  Do  it,  I  accept  the  nomination  which  my  Party  has  ten- 
dered. 

Any  soldier  can  fight  bravely  when  he  knows  that  his  are  the  heavy 
battalions  that  are  sure  to  win.  The  truest  soldiers  are  those  who  fight 
gallantly  when  they  know  they  can  not  win.     Why,  then,  do  they  fight? 

Because,  sometimes,  it  is  better  to  have  fought  and  lost  than  not 
to  have  fought  at  all.  From  every  field  of  our  Civil  War — from  every 
part  of  that  bloody  path  which  stretches  from  Pjig  Bethel  to  Appomattox, 
if  those  who  wore  the  Gray  could  speak,  would  come  the  voice: 

"Believing  as  we  did,  we  had  to  fight.  Honor,  self-respect,  patriotic 
convictions  were  imperative — we  had  to  fight.  And  on  these  fields  where 
we  fought  and  fell,  in  the  Lost  Cause,  as  well  as  upon  the  fields  of 
Thermopylae,  Marathon,  Bannockburn,  King's  Mountain  and  Yorktown, 
the  glorious  old  truth  is  still  the  truth,  'To  die  for  one's  country  is 
sweet !'  " 

Believing,  as  we  Populists  do,  the  inner  law  of  our  natures,  which 
we  dare  not  disobey,  must  control ;  and  the  law  says :  "Forward, 
March !" 

It  is  not  ours  to  consider  the  number  of  volunteers  who  may  rally 
to  our  standard.  It  is  not  ours  to  measure  chances  and  to  weigh 
probable  results.     It  is  sufficient  for  us  to  know  ivhat  is  our  duty. 

Where  conviction  says  we  should  go,  we  will  go.  What  con- 
science says  we  must  do,  will  be  done.  Having  obeyed  the  law  of 
our  being  in  this  behalf,  we  leave  the  rest  to  that  God  in  whose  divine 
economy  no  true  word  or  work  was  ever  lost. 

In  ancient  times,  they  had  no  easy  way  of  "striking  a  light"  and 
making  a  fire.  Yet  it  happened,  time  and  again,  that  there  was  no 
light  to  be  had.  The  fires  had  been  neglected,  everywhere,  and  the 
whole  nation  found  itself  in  darkness.  To  rekindle  the  spark  was  a 
most  tedious  and  difficult  matter;  therefore,  the  ancients,  to  prevent 
a  recurrence  of  the  calamity,  set  apart  certain  individuals  whose  sole 
duty  it  was  in  life  to  keep  the  light  burning. 

In  Rome,  the  preservation  of  the  fire  was  given  a  sacred  character ; 
a  temple  was  built  for  the  service,  and  those  who  were  set  apart  to 
feed  the  flame  were  consecrated  as  to  a  religious  duty. 

Pure  young  women  were  chosen  as  guardian  angels  of  the  sacred 
fire,  and  if  one  of  these  Vestal  Virgins  lost  her  own  purity,  or  let  the 
light   in  the  temple  go  out,   the  penalty  was  death. 

Within  the  temple,  night  and  day,  winter  and  summer,  year  in  and 
year  out,  the  Vestal  Virgin  watched  her  sacred  flame.  Roman  eagles 
might  be  flying  to  the  uttermost  ends  of  the  earth ;  Roman  legions 
might  be  camping  on  the  distant  Rhine,  or  chasing  Picts  and  Scots  to 
the  Grampian  Hills,  or  forming  lines  of  battle  upon  the  Euphrates — 


470 


WATSON'S  JEFFERSONIAN  MAGAZINE 


but  in  the  temple,  at  Rome,  would  be  found  the  eternal  fire,  with  the 
Vestals  feeding  it,  night  and  day. 

If  the  light  went  out  in  the  house  of  any  Roman — rich  or  poor, 
country  or  town — he  was  not  left  in  darkness.  Straightway  he  betook 
himself  to  the  temple  and  lit  his  torch  at  the  fire  which  the  Vestals 
had  kept  alive. 

And  all  over  the  broad  dominions  of  Rome  there  was  never  a  fear 
of  universal  darkness,  for  they  knew  that  if  one  Vestal  fell  away  from 
duty,  another  would  take  her  place,  and  that  Vestals  might  come  and 
\'estals  go,  but  the   light  would  shine   forever. 

Oh,  my  countrymen !  Each  of  us  is  a  temple,  within  each  of  us 
was  lit  the  sacred  fire,  within  each  of  us  are  the  better  angels  of  our 
nature,  whose  eternal  vigilance  is  needed  to  keep  the  temple  pure  and 
the  light  trimmed  and  burning.  As  it  is  with  the  individual,  so  it  is 
with  the  nation.  The  grandeur  of  the  Republic  must  always  rest  upon 
the  nobility  of  the  citizen. 

Does  the  sacred  fire  burn  low  within  me?  Then  woe  unto  me — for 
I  have  lessened  the  Nation's  splendor.  Has  the  light  gone  out  of  your 
life?     Then  woe  unto  you — for  the  Nation  has  lost  a  part  of  its  glory. 

To  every  man  and  woman  who  has  listened  to  this  address,  to 
every  man  and  woman  who  shall  hereafter  read  it,  I  appeal : 

Consecrate  the  temple ;  keep  pure  and  perpetual  the  \"estal  serv- 
ice; for  it  is  moral  death  to  the  individual  to  neglect  the  fire;  it  is 
moral  death  to  the  Nation  to  lose  the  light. 


THE  OPIUM  FIEND 


471 


THE  OPIUM  FIEND 


Vou  ask  me  why  I  sit  all  day  and  dream, 

Inhaling  what  you  call  the  noxious  fumes 

Of  this  dark,  stifling  drug.     So  may  it  seem 

To  many  who  have  tasted  not  its  joy  ; 

But  to  me  'tis  a  gorgeous  paradise 

Wherein  the  glittering  forms  of  seraphs  move 

In  joyful  throngs,  with  cries  of  ecstacy. 

Full  oft  it  is  a  calm  and  placid  port 

Of  soothing  rest  from  mad,  tumultous  waves 

Of  life.     They  say  I  killed  my  tender  wife 

By  my  excess,  for  much  my  darling  loved  ; 

But  she  is  dead,  and  I'm  alone  in  bliss, 

And  she,  perhaps,  a  fairer  angel  makes 

Than  wife.     So  no  regret  nor  grief  have  I. 

What  matters  it  ?     We  all  must,  some  day,  die. 

I  am  content,  and  Ting  Fu  watches  me — 

He  draws  my  sixty  rupees  income  now — 

What  little  food  I  eat,  he  brings  to  me. 

:\Iy  strength  is  gone,  and  I  am  failing  fast. 

When  first  I  came  one  pipe  brought  dreams  tome, 

But  now  it  takes  the  ninth  to  soothe  my  brain. 

But  when  I  feel  that  I'm  about  to  go 

I'll  call  Ting  Fu,  and  leave  this  dirty  rug 

For  one  that's  clean.     And  then  he'll  fill  my  pipe 

That  I  may  die  inhaling  soothing  fumes. 

— Bishop  Nettles  Alsbrook. 


WHEN  THE  MILL  SHUTS  DOWN 


HOSE  who  predict- 
ed that  the  Ameri- 
can working  people 
would  finally  be  as- 
similated by  a  "Be- 
nevolent Feudal- 
ism," must  needs 
put  far,  far  into 
the  future  the  fulfilment  of  their 
prophecy.  The  feudalism  may  be 
here,  but  as  yet  even  the  benevolence 
dictated  by  self-interest  has  shown 
only  sporadic  signs  of  arrival.  If  we 
remember  what  feudalism  meant,  it 
was  a  rough  exchange  of  general  per- 
secution for  the  protection  afforded 
by  bondage  to  the  strongest  lord.  The 
vassals  did  his  bidding,  fought  his 
battles,  made  captives  of  such 
wretches  of  their  own  class  whom 
fate  let  fall  into  their  hands.  The 
lord  fed,  clothed,  protected  and  pro- 
vided for  them  in  so  far  as  it  was 
necessary  in  order  that  they  might  be 
in  physical  condition  to  work  or  fight 
for  his  interests. 

Is  there  any  real  analogy  in  our 
class  conditions  today?  When  the 
mine  or  the  mill  or  the  factory  de- 
cides to  wage  any  form  of  industrial 
war.  does  it  consider  the  necessities 
of  its  own  operatives?  Never.  If  a 
breath  be  borne  from  some  New  Eng- 
land cotton  manufacturer  that  the 
time  honored  custom  of  coercion  re- 
auires  that  "the  bottom  drop  out  of 
the  cotton  business,"  it  promptly  drops 
with  worse  than  the  "dull,  sickening 
thud"  of  fiction  upon  their  own  em- 
ployees   first.      From     Massachusetts 


to  Mississippi  a  dejected  stream  of 
"hands"  trickles  slowly  home  in  an 
idleness  infinitely  pathetic,  because  no 
provision  has  been,  nor  ever  could 
have  been,  made  for  it.  As  the  dreary 
days  drag  by,  heart-racking  want 
deepens  to  starvation.  Aid  from  the 
public — the  public  that  is  taxed  and 
bullied  for  the  benefit  of  these  manu- 
facturers, alone  comes  to  the  rescue 
of  their  "hands." 

Wherever  in  history  have  slaves 
fared  worse?  These  pitiful  "hands" 
grope  blindly  for  succor  and  find  it 
not.  They  have  been  imported  by 
the  shipload  (under  steerage  condi- 
tions viler  than  those  any  ancient 
slaver  ever  tolerated),  from  suffering 
Europe ;  or  they  have  been  drawn 
from  our  mountain  wilds  and  isolated 
fields,  solely  for  the  aggrandizement 
of  the  mills  which  give  more  care  to 
the  cheap  remnants  of  their  looms 
than  to  the  stunned  operatives  they 
turn  adrift,  in  order  to  gain  some 
point  in  financial  strategy. 

Why,  the  panic  last  winter  solved 
their  labor  problem  beautifully.  They 
found,  poor  "Captains  of  Industry," 
that  their  hands  had  actually  begun 
to  demand  some  share  in  what  they 
were  told  was  the  general  prosperity. 
Men  thought  they  themselves  ought 
to  earn  enough  to  Tceep  their  tiny 
children  out  of  the  mill.  This  was 
outrageous,  of  course,  and  the  panic 
was  a  direct  dispensation  of  Provi- 
dence. The  hands  grovelled  and  be- 
came grateful  for  reduced  wages.  It 
was  found  that  half  the  original  force, 


TO  A  WILD  FLOWER 


473 


scared  by  the  fear  of  losing  their 
jobs,  did  all  the  work  the  entire  num- 
ber had  done.  Like  tired  horses, 
lashed  to  still  further  exertion,  they 
put  forth  the  last  particle  of  energy 
they  had.  The  mill  piled  up  products, 
at  greatly  reduced  expenses,  and  the 
peace  of  the  uttermost  servility  per- 
vaded the  office  of  the  "Captain." 

When  the  mill  wants  to  play  upon 
the  producer  of  raw  material,  the 
same  tactics  prevail.  What  does  the 
sum  of  human  woe  matter  if  they 
can  pay  a  few  cents  less  for  what 
they  need  and  charge  a  few  cents 
more   for  what  they  make?     If  agi- 


tation is  to  be  silenced,  if  labor  is  to 
be  disciplined,  if  the  public  is  to  be 
robbed,  if  legislation  is  to  be  coerced, 
if  an  election  is  to  be  brought  about, 
the  mill  shuts  doivn.  In  every  in- 
stance, its  own  employees  bear  the 
brunt  of  the  misery  the  employing 
classes  deliberately  inflict. 

"Benevolent  feudalism"  is  a  dream 
of  luxury  compared  to  the  conditions 
of  horrible  serfdom  which  really  pre- 
vail, so  long  as  our  laboring  classes 
are  exploited  as  slaves,  without  the 
slaves'  bare  right  to  be  fed  from  the 
master's  hand. 


TO  A  WILD  FLOWER 


O  little  creature  of  the  Wilding  brood, 

Thou  blossom-sparrow — frailest  life  of  Bloom — 
Thy  fall  is  marked  of  His  dear  Fatherhood 

As  sure  as  Star-world  crashing  to  its  doom. 


— Ada  A.   Mosher. 


HOW  BRYAN  SCOOPED  THE  INDEPENDENT 


Or  "The  Story  of  a  Suppressed  Populist  Newspaper" 


By  THOMAS  H    TIBBLES 


(Reprinted  from  Tom  Watson's  Magazine  June,  1905) 


T  one  time  there 
were  fifteen  hun- 
dred weekly  papers 
advocating  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Omaha 
platform.  Some  of 
them  had  large 
plants,  some  only  a  few  cases  of  type 
and  a  Washington  press,  but  all  were 
actuated  by  one  purpose — to  make 
conditions  easier  for  those  who  toiled 
on  farms,  in  shops,  factories,  mines 
and  mills.  Among  those  still  fighting 
up  to  the  first  of  April  of  this  year 
was  the  Nebraska  Independent.  Many 
such  papers  were  crushed  by  various 
devices,  chief  among  which  was  that 
the  great  advertisers  of  the  land,  all 
being  allied  with  Wall  Street,  refused 
to  give  them  any  business.  Numerous 
instances  could  be  cited  where  Popu- 
list papers  were  refused  advertise- 
ments given  to  plutocratic  papers  not 
having  one-tenth  the  circulation  and 
paid  for  at  a  higher  rate  than  the 
proprietors  of  the  Populist  papers 
would  have  taken.  In  the  files  of 
the  Nebraska  Independent  may  be 
found  scores  of  letters  from  adver- 
tising agents,  who  had  been  solicited 
for  business,  saying:  "If  you  will 
make  your  paper  an  exclusively  agri- 


cultural journal,  we  will  be  glad  to 
give  you  a  good  line  of  business,  but 
we  cannot  patronize  it  as  long  as  it  ad- 
vocates Populism."  Every  reform 
editor  has  had  the  same  experience. 

Thirteen  years  ago  the  agricultural 
papers  everywhere  were  publishing 
articles  defending  Populist  principles. 
Then  all  at  once  such  articles  were 
seen  in  their  pages  no  more,  and  im- 
mediately the  papers  were  flooded 
with  high-priced  advertising.  The 
religious  press  was  caught  in  the 
same  trap.  It  is  strange  that  the  de- 
vout readers  of  those  papers  never 
once  had  their  suspicions  aroused 
when  they  saw  so  many  display  ad- 
vertisements of  trusts,  banks  and  pro- 
motion schemes  in  their  modest  little 
religious  journals.  Notwithstanding 
all  such  schemes,  the  Nebraska  In- 
dependent lived  and  its  circulation 
gradually  extended  into  every  state 
and  territory.  It  became  evident  that 
to  get  rid  of  it  other  tactics  would 
have  to  be  employed.  To  destroy  the 
paper  was  not  the  objective.  It  was 
to  destroy  the  People's  Party.  With 
the  Independent  in  hostile  hands  the 
political  fortifications  built  up  by  it 
in  Nebraska  and  other  states  would 
be  deserted  and  the  Bryan,  Belmont, 
Sheehan  and  Tom     Taggart     Demo- 


HOW  BRYAN  SCOOPED  THE  INDEPENDENT 


475 


cratic  Party  would  walk  in  and  take 
possession. 

The  main  battle  was  fought  in  the 
Populist  state  convention  August  10, 
1904.  The  proposition  to  force  a  fu- 
sion with  the  Democrats,  under  the 
head  of  the  most  disreputable  end  of 
Wall  Street,  on  the  face  of  it  was 
most  absurd.  But  the  doing  of  ab- 
surd things  never  ruffles  the  placid 
countenance  of  Mr.  Bryan.  The  idea 
that  there  could  be  any  real  opposi- 
tion to  his  imperial  will  in  Nebraska, 
aside  from  the  Republican  Party, 
never  seemed  to  enter  his  mind. 
Heretofore  when  Mr.  Bryan  entered 
a  Democratic  or  Populist  convention, 
the  fusion  Populists  and  Democrats 
bowed  and  worshiped.  The  only  thing 
that  convention  had  to  do  was  to  find 
out  what  Mr.  Bryan  wished  and  then 
proceed  to  do  it  with  all  possible 
haste.  It  became  evident  that  this 
convention  would  have  to  be  handled 
differently,  Mr.  Bryan  all  the  winter, 
spring  and  summer  had  been  de- 
nouncing Judge  Parker  as  a  "dishon- 
est candidate,  running  on  a  dishonest 
platform,"  and  then  he  had  come 
home  from  St.  Louis,  sat  down  at  his 
desk  and  the  first  words  that  he 
wrote  were :  "I  shall  vote  for  Par- 
ker and  Davis."  The  Populists  re- 
membered how  for  eight  years  he 
had  been  coming  to  their  conventions, 
and  in  his  sweet  and  winning  way -fell- 
ing them  how  noble  they  were  to'  put 
principle  above  party  and  vote  for  - 
men  of  another  party  if  they  thought 
they  could  advance  reform  by  so  do- 
ing. Many  of  them,  who  had  always 
supported  Mr.  Bryan  since  he  first 
appeared  on  the  battlefields  of  poli- 
tics, thought  that  the  time  had  coriie 
wheti  he  should  practice  what  he 
preached.  Mr.  Bryan  realized  that 
there  was  trouble  ahead,  but  it  was 
thought  that  if  the  Nebraska  Inde- 
pendent would  support  the  Bryan  plan 


that  a  fusion  legislature  could  be 
elected  that  would  send  Mr.  Bryan  to 
the  United  States  Senate. 

The  editor  of  the  Independent  was 
obstreperous.  He  had  had  enough  of 
fusion  with  a  party  half  of  which  was 
more  disreputably  plutocratic  than  the 
Republican  Party,  and  whose  "irre- 
vocable" rules  were  so  rigid  that  they 
required  a  man,  upon  a  vote  of  a  con- 
vention, to  come  out  boldly  before  the 
people  and  advocate  a  poHcy  he  had 
denounced  by  pen  and  voice  for  eight 
years.  All  sorts  of  schemes  were  de- 
vised to  bring  this  obstreperous  edi- 
tor into  subjection  to  the  imperial  will 
of  Mr.  Bryan.  The  first  was  to  send 
all  the  leading  men  of  the  state,  from 
the  Chief  Justice  down,  to  use  per- 
suasion. That  failed.  Then  Mr. 
Bryan's  personal  daily  organ  in  the 
state  tried  a  new  deal.  It  poured  out 
on  Mr.  Tibbies  the  most  fulsome  flat- 
tery day  after  day.  It  said  that  if  he 
would  only  say  "fusion"  every  Popu- 
list in  the  state  would  obey  his  com- 
mand. When  all  that  failed  Mr. 
Bryan  came  himself.  The  proposi- 
tion that  he  made  was  that  a  fusion 
electoral  ticket  be  put  in  the  field 
composed  of  four  Populists  and  four 
Democrats,  Mr.  Bryan  saying  that, 
"in  the  event  of  their  election,  each 
party  could  count  the  full  vote  as  its 
own."  The  proposition  was  instantly 
rejected.  Others  followed.  Mr. 
Br\'an  tame  to  the  Independent  edi- 
torial room  four  different  times,  using 
all  his  eloquence  and  persuasive  pow- 
ers to  get  the  editor  to  consent  to  and 
advocate  a  fusion  with  a  party  that 
had  nominated  Parker,  and  whose 
csnnpaign  was  put  into  the  hands  of 
the  most  disreputable  gang  that  ever 
sought  Wall  Street  favor. 

;Mr.  Bryan  gave  orders  that  every- 
thing visible,  clear  to  the  political 
horizon,  and  other  things  invisible  ly- 
ing behind  the  floating  clouds,  should 


476 


WATSON'S  JEFFERSONIAN  MAGAZINE 


be  offered  to  the  Populist  convention 
providing  that  the  Popuhsts  would 
luse.  The  battle  was  fought  out  on 
the  convention  floor.  Many  Demo- 
crats had  secured  seats  as  delegates. 
One  Democrat  came  over  from  his 
own  convention  and  answered  to  the 
call  of  'J  hurston  County  in  the  Pop- 
ulist convention  which  had  no  dele- 
gates present  and  voted  the  fifteen 
votes  that  county  was  entitled  to  ev- 
ery time  for  fusion.  Out  of  the  hell- 
broth  brewed  in  that  all-night  session 
there  floated  upon  the  fusion  scum 
Bryan,  Belmont,  Sheehan,  Tom  Tag- 
gart  and,  remember  this  last  name, 
George  W.  Berge. 

Nearly  the  whole  State  ticket  was 
given  to  the  Populists — only  three 
unimportant  offices  being  conceded  to 
the  Democrats,  and  Berge — George 
'  Washington  Berge  —  captured  the 
prize  infamy,  the  fusion  nomination 
for  Governor.  Bryan  would  allow  no 
other  name  to  be  mentioned  in  the 
Democratic  convention,  although 
there  were  two  or  three  Democrats 
there  who  had  spent  time  and  much 
money  during  the  previous  years 
fighting  Bryan's  battles  for  him,  and 
who  had  expressed  a  desire  to  receive 
a  complimentary  vote  for  that  office. 
When  Bryan  speaks  the  Nebraska 
Democrat  turns  pale. 

The  Independent  was  still  a  thorn 
in  the  side  of  these  fusionists.  The 
editor  openly  declared  that  he  never 
would  vote  for  or  support  a  Belmont- 
Bryan- Parker  Democrat.  Then  it  was 
that  fusion  itch  for  office  and  Bryan 
diplomacy  joined  forces  to  destroy 
the  Independent.  The  plutocratic  Re- 
publican attacks  upon  it  had  been  of 
no  avail,  and  week  after  week  it  had 
proclaimed  the  doctrines  of  the  Peo- 
ple's Party  for  years.  In  an  open 
fight  against  awful  odds  it  had  fought 
battle  after  battle,  sometimes  victo- 
rious and  sometimes  defeated,  but    it 


fought  on.  It  took  fusion  treason,  it 
took  the  work  of  men  who  constantly 
proclaimed  themselves  Populists,  who 
msisted  upon  attending  Populist  con- 
ventions while  their  sole  aim  was  to 
destroy  the  People's  Party,  to  do  what 
all  the  hosts  of  plutocracy  had  failed 
to  do. 

As  soon  as  the  vote  for  fusion  had 
been  announced  in  the  convention  as 
prevailing,  more  than  half  the  dele- 
gates present — whole  counties  had 
been  voted  for  fusion  when  only  one 
or  two  delegates  were  in  the  city — 
rose  and  left.  The  next  morning 
they  hired  a  hall  and  discussed  the 
proposition  of  putting  a  straight  Pop- 
ulist ticket  in  the  field,  but  when  it 
was  remembered  that  the  fusionists 
had  the  legal  organization  and  the 
ticket  would  have  to  go  on  the  ballot 
under  some  other  name  than  People's 
Party  the  project  was  abandoned. 
The  result  was  that  20,000  Populists 
voted  the  Republican  ticket,  30,000, 
stayed  at  home  and  refused  to  vote, 
and  a  little  over  20,000  voted  the 
Populist  national  ticket.  The  Senate 
of  the  Nebraska  Legislature  was  sol- 
idly Republican;  the  House  had  only 
nine  fusionists  in  it.  Mr.  Bryan  saw 
to  it  that  they  all  cast  their  votes  for 
a  straight  Democrat  for  United  States 
Senator.  All  that  was  necessary  to 
get  the  fusionists  to  do  that,  both 
those  who  called  themselves  Demo- 
crats and  those  who  called  themselves 
Populists,  was  for  them  to  imagine 
that  they  heard  a  far-off  rumble  that 
sounded  like  the  voice  of  Bryan  say- 
ing :    "Vote  for  a  Democrat." 

When  the  conventions  were  over 
and  the  campaign  committees  appoint- 
ed, the  fusionists  found  that  it  was  a 
difficult  thing  to  make  a  campaign  in 
Nebraska.  Something  must  be  done 
to  get  the  Independent  to  fight  the 
battle  for  them,  but  the  Independent 
still  declared  that  it  would  not  sup- 


HOW  BRYAN  SCOOPED  THE  INDEPENDENT 


477 


port  a  Parker  Democrat.  Then,  sad 
to  relate,  the  editor  of  the  Independ- 
ent got  taken  in  himself. 

The  Chairman  of  the  Democratic 
State  Committee,  a  brother-in-law  to 
Bryan,  came  to  Mr.  Tibbies  declaring 
that  he  represented  Mr.  Bryan  and 
was  speaking  in  Bryan's  name,  and 
made  the  following  proposition : 

\i  Mr.  Tibbies  would  spend  most  of 
his  time  out  of  the  state  during  the 
campaign,  and  let  the  Independent 
support  the  fusion  ticket,  all  of  whose 
nominees  except  three  were  Popu- 
lists, Mr.  Bryan  on  his  part  would 
agree  to  go  to  Arizona  or  Colorado 
and  get  sick.  He  would  continue  to 
keep  sick  until  the  close  of  the  cam- 
paign— so  sick  that  he  would  not  be 
able  to  make  any  campaign  speeches 
at  all.  An  exception  was  made  in  re- 
gard to  Indiana.  It  was  said  that  Mr. 
Bryan  had  promised  to  make  three 
speeches  in  Indiana  in  support  of  his 
old  personal  friend  who  was  running 
for  Governor  of  the  State,  but  it  was 
further  stipulated  that  these  three 
speeches  should  not  be  political 
speeches,  but  repetitions  of  Mr.  Bry- 
an's lecture  on  "Ideals." 

Mr.  Bryan  went  to  Arizona  and 
sent  home  a  letter  saying  that  he  was 
worse  and  would  not  be  able  to  deliv- 
er any  political  speeches  during  the 
campaign.  The  letter  was  printed  in 
the  Lincoln  daily  papers  and  was 
shown  to  Mr.  Tibbies  as  proof  that 
Mr.  Bryan  was  keeping  his  contract. 

The  chairman  of  the  Democratic 
State  Committee  went  to  New  York, 
saw  Parker,  Sheehan,  Belmont,  Tom 
Taggart  and  the  rest  of  the  band  of 
financial  and  political  pirates.  He 
came  home  with  money  for  campaign 
expenses.  Then  Mr.  Bryan  hired  a 
special  train  and  started  out  speech- 
making  in  Nebraska  and  in  other 
states.  The  surprising  rapidity  with 
which  his  lung  healed  has  never  been 


equalled  in  all  the  history  of  medicine. 
But  when  the  votes  were  counted  it 
was  learned  that  wherever  Mr.  Bryan 
spoke,  whether  from  the  rear  end  of 
his  car,  on  a  platform  by  the  railway 
side,  or  in  theatre  or  hall,  a  tidal  wave 
of  Republican  votes  followed  him,  al- 
though he  pleaded  with  his  Democrat- 
ic hearers  to  be  "regular."  Hundreds 
of  thousands  of  Democrats  listened 
to  this  man,  who  for. eight  years  had 
been  denouncing  Wall  Street  and  all 
its  ways,  and  was  now  consorting 
with  the  most  disreputable  part  of 
Wall  Street,  urging  them  to  vote  to 
keep  it  in  power.  Humiliated,  sad  at 
heart,  their  idol  carrying  the  banner 
of  the  enemy,  in  the  enemy's  ranks, 
they  turned  their  backs  in  scorn  upon 
Mr.  Bryan,  went  to  the  polls  and  vot- 
ed the  Republican  ticket.  If  they 
were  to  have  Wall  Street  and  plu- 
tocracy, they  wanted  the  old,  genuine 
article,  not  "something  just  as  good." 
The  fusionists  declared  that  wherever 
Watson  or  Tibbies  spoke  they  made 
votes  for  Roosevelt.  They  did  not 
make  one  Roosevelt  vote  where  Bryan 
made  a  thousand. 

Mr.  Berge — George  Washington 
Berge — received  a  large  vote  for 
Governor.  This  was  because  Mickey, 
the  Republican,  who  was  running  for 
re-election,  was  cordially  hated  by  the 
whole  Republican  Party.  Thirty 
thousand  Republicans  voted  for 
Berge,  and  then  he  was  defeated. 
But  Berge  is  a  fusionist.  He  wants 
office,  and  especially  the  office  of  Gov- 
ernor of  Nebraska. 

It  seemed  necessary,  if  Mr.  Bryan 
was  to  prove  his  undying  love  for  the 
Democratic  Party,  to  convince  all 
Eastern  Democrats  that  he  would  for- 
ever prove  "regular"  no  matter  who 
was  nominated  or  what  the  platform 
was,  and  it  seemed  to  the  fusionists, 
if  they  were  to  have  any  of  the  spoils 
of  victory  when  the  national  Govern 


478 


WATSON'S  JEFFERSONIAN  MAGAZINE 


ment  was  captured,  that  the  People's 
Party  must  be  destroyed.  It  must 
never  hold  another  state  or  national 
convention.  They  all  agreed  that  the 
Party  had  done  a  wonderful  work  for 
the  nation,  that  its  principles  were 
being  everywhere  adopted,  but  it 
must  be  crucified,  officially  pronounc- 
ed dead  and  buried,  and  the  first  step 
toward  that  object  was  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Nebraska  Independent. 

Mr.  Berge  is  a  lawyer.  He  never 
has  had  a  day's  experience  in  a  news- 
paper office.  He  announced  that  he 
would  start  a  paper  in  Lincoln  in  op- 
position to  the  Independent.  Then  a 
proposition  was  made  to  the  proprie- 
tor of  the  Independent  to  sell  out.  A 
very  large  price  was  offered.  When 
the  proprietor  faced  these  facts,  he 
began  to  get  discouraged.  He  had 
grown  up  in  Lincoln.  He  had  asso- 
ciated with  these  fusionists  for  years. 
The  fight  which  he  saw  in  the  near 
future  with  these  men  was  an  un- 
pleasant thing  to  contemplate.  The 
cost  of  running  a  great  newspaper 
plant  is  large.  When  it  was  known 
that  the  home  advertising  would  in 
part  be  lost,  and  also  a  large  share  of 
the  job  work,  the  moment  the  editor 
defied  Bryan  and  the  fusionists,  the 
outlook  was  gloomy.  To  those  whom 
the  Independent  had  always  fought  in 
the  city  and  state  were  to  be  added 
hundreds  of  others  who  had  passed 
as  friends.  And  the  proprietor  be- 
came discouraged. 

It  is  somewhat  discouraging  to  go 
to  a  convention  ostensibly  composed 
of  men  of  your  own  party  and  see  the 
most  active  members  of  it  engaged  in 
a  scheme  to  destroy  your  party.  These 
have  been  the  conditions  in  every 
Populist  convention  in  the  State  of 
Nebraska  since  1890.  The  only  thing 
that  prevented  the  party  from  being 
destroyed  sooner  was  the  Nebraska 
Independent.     The  fusionists  became 


more  and  more  convinced  of  that  tact, 
and  the  scheme  was  invented  to  pub- 
lish a  paper  in  opposition  in  the  same 
city,  which,  while  claiming  to  be 
Populistic,  would  work  for  the  de- 
struction of  the  party.  Credit  for 
the  invention  belongs  to  George 
Washington  Berge.  The  hope  was 
entertained  that  when  the  People's 
Party  was  destroyed  all  the  Populists 
would  go  into  the  Democratic  Party 
and  George  Washington  Berge  would 
be  Governor  and  W.  J.  Bryan  United 
States  Senator. 

The  proprietor  of  the  Independent 
was  bound  in  the  contract  transferr- 
ing to  George  Washington  Berge,  the 
title  to  the  paper,  not  to  engage  in  the 
business  of  publishing  a  reform  paper 
for  five  years,  but  the  fusionists 
found  that  it  would  be  impossible  to 
put  any  shackles  on  tlie  editor.  He 
intends  to  fight  on.  Just  as  all  the 
world  is  beginning  to  accept  Popu- 
list principles  he  does  not  propose  to 
sheathe  his  sword  and  stand  by,  a 
passive  spectator.  The  greatest  bat- 
tle of  the  age  is  to  be  fought.  He  "is 
going  up  against"  that  crowd  again. 
The  columns  of  the  Independent 
have  been  an  open  forum  for  any  man 
who  thought  he  had  something  that 
would  benefit  humanity.  In  the  col- 
umns of  the  paper  l:e  could  always 
voice  his  sentiment.">.  Besides  that,  it 
has  been  a  journal  of  economics,  so- 
ciology, philosophy,  ethics,  finance, 
single  tax,  land,  Govt  rnment  and  all 
the  decent  news.  Now  it  has  gone 
into  the  hands  of  an  ordinary  West- 
ern lawyer  who  never  read  a  stand- 
ard work  of  authority  on  any  one  of 
these  subjects.  It  is  to  be  a  personal 
organ  after  the  fashion  of  the  one 
that  W.  J.  Bryan  publishes  in  the 
same  town.  W.  J.  Bryan  is  the  most 
accomplished  orator  of  the  day.  He 
has  personal  acquaintances  in  every 
state    and    territory.      Millions    have 


HOW  BRYAN  SCOOPED  THE  IXDEPENDEXT 


479 


met  and  shaken  hands  with  him. 
Geo.  W.  Berge  has  some  acquaint- 
ances outside  of  Lancaster  County, 
and  besides  that,  Berge  is  a  PopuHst 
engaged  in  destroying  the  Popuhst 
Party.  These  are  his  elements  of  suc- 
cess. 

The  PopuHsts  of  the  different  states 
and  territories  who  have  been  readers 
of  the  Independent  will  in  the  near 
future  have  a  place  to  express  their 
views  and  read  discussions  of  the 
great  problems  that  are  pressing  for 
solution.  We  will  be  heard.  For 
years  not  a  great  daily  would  print  a 
line  in  defense  of  the  fundamental 
principles  of  Populism.  Now  maga- 
zines are  making  fortunes  for  their 
proprietors  who  have  admitted  some 
of  these  principles  to  their  pages. 
Some  of  these  magazines  have  a 
greater  circulation  than  was  ever 
known  before  anvwhere  in  the  world 


for  n.onthly  periodical  literature.  The 
People's  Party  is  not  dead.  The  Ne- 
braska Indcpendetit  will  rise  from  its 
ashes  stronger  and  better  than  ever 
before!  The  vilest,  rottenest,  worst 
smelling  spot  in  all  the  preserves  of 
plutocracy  is  that  place  where  the  fu- 
sionist  roams,  seeking  to  destroy  the 
organization  that  gave  him  the  only 
opportunities  of  life. 

***** 

(The  Independent  did  not  rise  from 
its  ashes.  On  the  contrary,  Mr.  Berge 
rose  up,  with  all  the  wrath  of  a  man 
who  has  been  soft  soaped  and  gold 
bricked,  and  sued  other  Christians  for 
damages.  We  don't  hear  that  he  has 
yet  cashed  in  on  his  law-suit,  but  Bro. 
Thomas  H.  Tibbies  is  now  a  strong 
Bryan  man,  and  is  camping  on  the 
spot  which  he  declared  smelt  so  badly 
— to  wit,  the  spot  "where  the  fusion- 
ist  roams.") 


480 


WATSON'S  JEFFERSONIAN  MAGAZINE 


MY  MISSION 


A  piece  of  clay  to  mold  and  shape 

Is  given  unto  me  ; 
(I  am  the  Potter's  instrument,) 

What  shall  the  vessel  be  ? 
So  soft  and  pliable  it  lies, 

So  passive  and  so  still ; 
Responsive  to  my  every  touch, 

I  mold  it  as  I  vfill. 
And  yet,  potentially,  it  holds 

Far  more  than  I  can  say  ; 
The  strength  and  power  of  giant  forms 

Are  in  this  piece  of  clay. 

I  tremble  as  I  take  the  gift, 

This  pleasurable  care  ; 
For  hidden  deep,  somewhere  there  lies 

The  Potter's  image,  fair  ! 
.He  bids  me  labor  to  reveal 

The  wondrous  power  and  might 
Of  treasures  hid  in  earthen  clay, 

To  show  what  God  is  like. 
And  so  each  day  I  work  and  pray 

And  grow  impatient,  maybe  ; 
For,  O,  dear  Lord,  I  long  to  see 

Thine  image  in  my  baby  ! 

— Luella  Knott 
Tallahassee,  Fla. 


^ 


ZORA  FAIR 


By  FRANCIS  MARIA  SCOTT 


ESTLING  in  the 
verdure-clad  hills  of 
Middle  Georgia  is 
the  pretty  little  vil- 
lage of  Oxford, 
well  known  because 
Emory  College  has 
been  there  since 
1837,  On  this  particular  afternoon 
the  college  boys  are  out  in  larger 
numbers  than  usual,  and  they  do  not 
seem  to  be  under  the  ordinary  re- 
straint; there  is  evidently  a  subdued 
excitement,  in  which  boys  and  men, 
girls  and  women,  share  alike,  and 
only  occasionally,  does  a  boy  speak  in 
a  loud  tone,  when  some  one  will  say: 
"Hush,  it  is  no  time  for  excite- 
ment," as  though  some  great  peril 
were  imminent;  and  another  rejoins, 
"Even  you  boys  must  be  men,  in 
defense  of  your  mothers  and  sisters," 
whereupon  the  boys  clinch  their  fists, 
and  their  young  eyes  flash  the  fire  of 
suppressed  emotion  and  excitement. 

What  is  this?  It  is  '61.  Though 
all  things  in  the  life  of  every  South- 
ern man  should  fall,  this  date  is  in- 
efifaceably  written  upon  the  tablet  of 
his  memory,  because  traced  with  the 
marred,  but  beloved  finger  dipped  in 
life  blood! 

The  village  retains  its  name;  the 
great  old  oaks  shade  the  same  houses, 
provide  the  same  Nature's  corridors 
for  the  street  passengers ;  yea,  the 
same  village,  but  where  are  the  col- 
lege boys,  who  paraded  the  streets  in 
the  glory  of  their  pride,  casting 
sheep's   eyes   at   the   pretty   maidens. 


and  later,  burning  with  patriotism  and 
eagerness  for  the  fray?  They  have 
gone  to  the  lighting  line,  in  the  de- 
fense of  their  South — country,  for 
the  protection  of  their  homes,  and  to 
save  their  mothers,  sisters,  and  sweet- 
hearts. 

Sad,  unfamiliar  faces  stand  in  the 
doorways,  peer  through  the  windows ; 
or  try,  in  some  way,  to  adjust  them- 
selves to  their  new  surroundings. 
War,  because  so  rife  with  death,  is  a 
mighty  leveler,  and  there  is  a  strange 
dearth  of  scornful  looks,  and  absence 
of  "respect  of  persons,"  in  the  inhab- 
itants of  this  village  of  Oxford ;  for 
a  common  peril  threatens  their  lives ; 
and,  there  is  no  distinction  going  be- 
fore, or  following  in,  the  wake  of 
death. 

These  strange  faces  that  you  see 
are  those  who  have  taken  refuge  from 
battle-infested  localities,  in  the  quiet 
of  the  hills,  under  the  shade  of  the 
trees — but,  alas,  their  retreat  is  be- 
thought and  their  churches  are  con- 
verted into  hospitals,  a  fitting  place 
indeed,  because  the  words  of  the 
Master  teach  works  for  the  Master. 

College  and  campus,  generally 
guarded  so  jealously  from  intruders, 
now  throng  with  doctors,  soldiers,  and 
volunteer  nurses,  both  men  and  wo- 
men, who  are  caring  for  the  wounded, 
sick,  and  dying.  The  campus  grave- 
yard is  getting  its  share  of  expansion, 
and  many  there  are  who  are  taking 
their  last  sleep  under  the  shade  of  the 
campus  trees. 

A  dash  of  calvarymen,  in  blue, 
coarse  and  exultant,  is  not  infrequent. 


482 


WATSON'S  JEFFERSONIAX  MAGAZINE 


raiding  the  quiet  village,  and  the  ref- 
ugees make  preparation  to  move  to 
another  point,  when  some  spokesman 
suggests  to  them  that  "one  place  is 
about  as  good  as  another  now,  Sher- 
man is  going  to  spread  himself  over 
the  whole  country  if  he  can  hold  his 
army."  About  that  time  some  infan- 
try, in  grey,  will  come  into  the  town^ 
and  the  refugees  get  so  busy  feeding, 
and  trying  to  clothe  them,  that  they 
forget  the  danger  for  the  time,  in 
their  sympathetic  deeds. 

Self-preservation  is  the  first  law  of 
Nature,  and  self-entertainment  is,  I 
think,  the  second  law  of  Nature;  for, 
despite  imminent  peril,  disaster,  yea, 
in  the  face  of  death,  man  will  enter- 
tain himself,  and  so,  after  feeling  this 
common  danger,  intermingling  in  this 
common  work,  and  being  in  this  ter- 
rible strain  for  weeks,  months,  years, 
these  human  beings  began  to  feel  the 
need  of  relaxation,  and  some  of  the 
more  sanguine  and  lighter-hearted 
suggested  an  opera.  A  callous  fellow 
said : 

'•Call  it  The  Swan  Song,'  "  but  this 
did  not  commend  itself  to  the  valiant, 
when  another  said, 

"  'The  War  Song,'  it  shall  be." 

And  so,  between  times  of  nursing 
and  burying,  the  new  population  of 
Oxford  busied  itself  rehearsing  for 
the  melo-drama,  and  became  interest- 
ed in  the  coming  entertainment.  It 
was  even  suggested  by  a  venturesome, 
material  fellow  that  refreshments  be 
served,  but  another  facetiously  said 
that  hoe-cake  and  potato  coffee  would 
not  be  a  desirable  menu,  and  the 
good  women  decided  that  even  this 
would  be  taking  food  from  the  sol- 
diers' mouths. 

There  were  no  dress  suits  or  "crea- 
tions" upon  this  occasion,  as  the  men, 
who  were  well  or  convalescent,  pre- 
pared for  their  parts  as  actor  or  au- 
dience, by  a  bath,  shave,  hair-cut  and 


comb,  and  a  dusting  of  old  suits,  or 
bespattered  uniforms;  or  a  donning 
of  the  paper  suit  for  the  stage.  The 
women  washed  out  their  homespun 
dresses,  if  actresses,  or  appeared  in 
some  ante-bellum  thing  as  a  specimen 
of  "faded  gentility,"  if  audience. 
However,  there  were  beautiful  wom- 
en, and  brave  men,  yea,  and  brave 
women  too,  in  that  assembly.  You 
can  imagine  the  putting  away  of  caste 
when  I  tell  you  that  even  the  colony 
of  Charlestonians  refugeed  there  par- 
ticipated in  the  drama,  given  at  Ox- 
ford, in  defiance  of  Sherman  and  his 
ruthless  men. 

Among  the  colonists  was  a  South 
Carolina  gentleman,  of  the  old  school, 

J\Ir.  ■  Fair,  whose  daughter 

was  named  Zora,  and  she  was  fair  by 
nature  as  well  as  name.  Zora  was 
slight,  above  medium  in  height,  clear- 
cut  features,  auburn  hair,  eyes  of  lu- 
minous brown,  sweet-mouthed,  a 
patrician  in  face  and  form,  a  soulful 
face ;  but  so  far,  her  filial  aflfection, 
and  her  loyalty  to  the  Confederacy, 
were  the  only  spirits  that  influenced 
and  impelled  her;  so,  Zora  Fair,  be- 
cause of  her  beauty  and  voice,  was 
the  heroine  of  "The  War  Song." 

Air.  Fair  did  not  attend  the  enter- 
tainment because  of  any  levity  of 
heart  he  felt,  or  even  because  he 
wanted  to  parade  the  beauty  of  his 
daughter,  but  he  came  from  a  sense 
of  duty,  deeming  that  all  there  need- 
ed fellowship  because  they  were  fel- 
low-sufiferers,  and  then  he  hoped  to 
hear  something  upon  which  he  could 
act,  either  for  his  country  or  for  him- 
self. 

The  climax  was  reached !  Zora's 
voice  rang  out  clear  and  sweet,  carol- 
ing the  triumph  of  the  Confederacy; 
her  beauty  was  intensified,  her  soul 
was  in  the  song ;  the  audience  was 
spell-bound,  and  expressed  itself  ac- 
cording to  its  culture,  some  by  deep, 


ZORA  FAIR 


483 


quiet  interest,  others  by  clapping  of 
hands,  and  one  "cracker"  by  jumping 
upon  his  chair,  and  hallooing  "Hur- 
rah; Hurrah  for  Jeff  Davis  and  the 
Confederacy" ;  and  the  curtain  went 
down. 

Tears  of  emotion  rained  down  Zo- 
ra's  cheeks,  and  she  sank  into  a  chair, 
and  into  thought.  This  study  absorb- 
ed her,  and  no  one  spoke  to  her,  but 
one  by  one  the  actors  and  actresses 
left  the  stage  and  gathered  in  an 
ante-room  in  the  rear.  After  a  long 
time  Zora  joined  them,  as  the  jocular 
soldier  was  just  saying: 

"There  is  but  one  thing  I  would 
rather  do  than  hear  Miss  Zora  sing." 

"One  guess  will  get  that,"  replied  a 
fellow-convalescent. 

"Yes,  we  are  about  one  hundred 
thousand  now,  with  a  single  thought, 
that  is,  the  demolition  of  the  Federal 
forces,"  continued  Mr.  Fair,  in  order 
to  draw  them  out. 

"Say,  what  do  you .  suppose  that 
Sherman  is  going  to  do  next?"  in- 
quired a  citizen  of  the  Confederacy, 
who  had  personated  the  spy,  in  the 
opera. 

The  conversation  that  Mr.  Fair  an- 
ticipated at  last  began,  and  he  listened 
eagerly : 

"Only  his  strongest  ally,  'His  Sa- 
tanic ]\Iajesty'  can  tell,"  declared  an- 
other. 

"Why.  I  know  what  he'll  do.  He'll 
execute  his  long  cherished  plan  of 
cutting  his  way  through  homes  and 
hearts  from  Atlanta  to  the  Atlantic," 
said  another  rebel. 

"Yes,  for  his  washes  are  his  right 
of  way,"  acquiesced  a  third  strategist. 
"He  may  follow  Hood,  or  he  may 
come  upon  us." 

"I  believe  he  w^anted  Hood  to  go  to 
Tennessee,  and  I  do  not  think  he  has 
any  idea  of  following  him.  I  un- 
derstand he  was  heard  to  say  that  he 
would  give  Hood  the  rations  to  go  to 


Tennessee  with,  if  he  would  go.  Now, 
1  am  sure  he  will  take  up  his  March 
of  Death  to  the  sea,"  said  the  positive 
fellow. 

"As  the  unexpected  has  not  failed 
to  happen  in  this  war,  the  only  thing 
I  know  of  to  be  done  is  to  go  and 
ask  him,"  said  another  with  charac- 
teristic soldier-levity. 

"One  volunteer  at  a  time,  please, 
so  that  I  can  get  the  names,"  laughed 
Mr.  Jocularity ;  but,  without  a  smile 
came  these  words  from  the  sweet 
mouth  of  Zora  Fair, 

"I  will  go  and  ask  him." 

This  girl  was  too  pretty,  sweet  and 
womanly,  to  be  jeered,  but  they  knew 
she  could  only  be  jesting,  and  one  of 
them  said, 

"Fll  wager  you  odds,  Miss  Zora, 
you  would  not  ask  him,  if  you  should 
beard  the  lion  in  his  den." 

"Certainly  not,  if  he  roared  once. 
Ask  Mr.  Johnston  how  he  can  roar," 
suggested  another. 

"I  do  not  think  Gen.  Johnston  is 
afraid  of  General  Sherman,"  retorted 
Miss  Fair,  with  true  womanly  de- 
fense. 

Mr.  Fair  was  busy  with  his  own 
thoughts,  and,  for  the  time,  forgot 
his  momentary  fear  at  the  words  of 
his  daughter. 

Presently  they  attuned  their  voices 
to  the  dear  old  air  of  "Home,  Sweet 
Home,"  after  which  they  dispersed  to 
their  homes  in  cottages,  mansions, 
churches,  hospitals,  college,  or  cam- 
pus tents,  and  slept  as  though  Sher- 
man and  Grant  did  not  exist. 

:•:  *  ^:  ;i:  * 

The  turn  of  midnight  of  October 
16,  1864,  brought  on  a  cold,  drizzling 
rain,  in  which  a  lone  negro  woman 
wended  her  way  in  a  northwesterly 
direction  along  the  railroad  track  of 
the  Georgia  Railway.  She  was,  ap- 
parently, bent  upon  some  mission  that 
required  haste,  for  she  walked  rapid- 


484 


WATSON'S  JEFFERSONIAN  MAGAZINE 


ly.  She  did  not  seem  to  be  utterly  de- 
void of  fear;  for,  sometimes,  she 
would  cast  furtive  glances  on  one 
side  or  the  other  of  the  right  of  way 
of  the  road-bed.  Faithful,  or  faith- 
less creature,  we  do  not  know,  but  in 
tlrese  days  of  war,  waste,  and  distress, 
strange  things  are  the  order  of  the 
day  and  night,  and  you  may  be  the 
servant  of  your  mistress,  in  the  fulfil- 
ment of  a  momentous  mission;  or, 
you  may  be  a  run-away  from  her  to 
whom  you  have  a  thousand  times  vol- 
unteered a  profession  of  loyalty  and 
allegiance.  She  continues  her  course 
in  the  darkness  of  that  dreary  night, 
which  has  become  gross  in  its  gloom, 
and  may  almost  be  felt  in  its  density, 
until  the  lonely  wayfarer  is  evidently 
afraid  of  going  through  a  trestle  or 
down  an  embankment,  for  she  crawls 
along  on  the  cross-ties,  when,  sud- 
denly she  stops,  feeling  a  presence. 
She  almost  ceases  to  breathe,  but  it 
is  too  late,  the  picket  has  seen  her 
and  exclaims, 

"What  the  devil  is  this — man  or 
bea&t?" 

The  negress  can  not  see  whether 
the  uniform  is  blue  or  grey,  and  so 
she  adroitly  asks : 

"Law,  honey,  it  haint  nobody  but 
me,  ol'  Dinah,  an'  I  axes  yo'  ter  fer- 
gib  me  fer  disruptin'  your  somnambu- 
lations,  but — who  is  you  honey — is  yo' 
a  soldier  too?" 

"I  am  only  a  soldier  one,  Mrs.  Di- 
nah," ("Ah,"  thought  Dinah,  "if  he 
had  been  Southern,  he  would  have 
said  'Auntie'  ")  "and  to  my  sorrow  be 
it  said,  for  if  I  were  two,  one  of  me 
would  cat  while  the  other  starves,  one 
of  me  would  sleep  while  the  other 
pickets,  one  of  me  would  die  while 
the  other  serves  Gen.  Sherman ;  but, 
Mrs.  Dinah,  what  are  you  doing  here 
in  this  h —  of  a  night,  when  a  Yank 
can't  see  a  Reb  in  the  dark,  and  he 


can  cut  the  blackness  with  his  sword 
— if  he  had  one.    What  is  it  ?" 

"Ise  glad  to  hear  you  call  de  big 
General's  name,  case  its  him  Isc 
seekin'  to  free  me  from  de  chains  ob 
slavery,  but  I  hope  you  won't  tell  no- 
body where  Ise  gwine?" 

"I  will  not,  Mrs.  Dinah,"  and  the 
burly  soldier  laughed  outright,  "for  I 
guess  I'd  crawl  on  my  hands  and 
knees  in  a  dark  night  if  I'd  been  a 
slave  for  sixty  or  seventy  years.  I 
won't  tell,  but  old  woman,  you  had 
better  go  in  that  tent  and  sleep  until 
morning,  and  then  pursue  your  pil- 
grimage to  Mr.  Mecca  Sherman,  be- 
cause further  up  the  road  the  bridge 
has  been  burned,  and  no  mere  human 
can  CKOSs  that  foot-path  of  timber 
from  pier  to  pier,  in  this  devilish 
dark." 

"Honey,  does  you  know  dat  dis 
dark  is  not  evil,  but  good,  and  while 
I  tank  you  fer  your  kin'  ministration 
to  shelter  my  ol'  head  from  de  rain, 
I'll  trabel  on  my  journey  to  Free- 
dom's Lan',  de  Ian  o'  joy  an'  luv' — 
and  truss  dat  you  will  be  fergib — 1 
mean — blest.    Good  night,  son." 

And  the  old  negress  trembled  with 
intense  fear  lest  the  soldier  should 
compel  her  to  rest  under  his  tent,  and 
yet  she  feared  to  betray  undue  haste 
to  put  distance  between  her  and  him. 

Just  as  the  greyest  of  grey  dawns 
in  changing  from  black  to  leaden  the 
Eastern  horizon,  the  old  negress 
thinks  she  can  see  the  place  where 
there  was  once  a  bridge  over  a  river. 
She  can  not  tell  through  the  semi- 
darkness  whether  she  will  be  able  to 
cross  or  not,  and  immediately  begins 
mentally  to  improvise  something  that 
will  float.  She  reaches  a  place  where 
once  a  bridge  began  to  span  the  Yel- 
low River;  and,  alas,  there  is  no 
shadow  of  hope  for  her  crossing.  She 
sits  upon  the  remains  of  the  approach 
and  looks  down  at  the  darksome  wa- 


ZORA  FAIR 


485 


ter,  and  looking  up  notes  that  the  clay 
is  rapidly  breaking.  She  must  cross. 
Will  she  try  to  swim?  She  is  not  a 
good  swimmer.  She  is  unused  to 
prayer,  but  prays  for  a  successful 
gaining  of  the  nether  shore,  and 
commences  the  hazardous  descent. 
She  is  one  hundred  feet  above  the 
■water,  and  must  descend  twenty  feet 
before  she  reaches  the  foot-path  of 
timber,  improvised  by  the  soldiers.  It 
is  perilous,  in  the  extreme,  and  must 
be  accomplished  by  the  utmost  care. 
Again  and  again,  she  has  to  close  her 
eyes  against  the  sight  of  the  water 
eighty  feet  below,  but  has  to  nerve 
herself  to  stand  erect,  and  jump  from 
timber  to  timber  where  they  do  not 
come  together  between  the  piers. 
Slowly,  tortuously,  alternately  fearing 
and  praying,  the  negress  makes  the 
phenomenal  crossing  of  Yellow  River 
on  rude  bridge  timber,  crudely  placed 
on  piers,  with  interstices. 

What  is  the  motive  that  impels  this 
heroic  deed?  It  must  be  love,  for  this 
is  the  mightiest  motive  that  impels 
the  human  creature,  and  for  love  of 
what?  We  will  see;  but,  we  must  let 
the  negro  woman  pursue  her  danger- 
ous journey  unattended,  even  by  our 
thoughts,  for  we  must  return  to  the 
home  of  Zora  Fair;  where  w^e  meet 
her  father  coming  out  at  the  door  on 
the  second  morning  after  the  enter- 
tainment. 

"Have  you  seen  my  daughter,  Zo- 
ra?" said  the  bewildered  father  of 
the  young  girl,  who  a  few  nights  be- 
fore had  united  her  sweet  voice  with 
the  voices  of  the  soldiers  as  they  sang, 
*'Home,  Sweet  Home." 

"You  still  have  no  news  of  her?" 

And  the  story  spread  like  wild-fire 
that  Zora  Fair  had  fled  from  her 
home,  for  what  reason  nobody  was 
sure,  save  her  father,  who  remember- 
ed the  light  that  kindled  her  eye,  as 
she  said. 


"I  will  go  and  ask  him." 

One  of  the  soldiers  who  had  been 
housed  in  the  church,  and  ministered 
to  by  Zora,  took  it  upon  himself  to 
try  to  comfort  her  father,  and  while 
he  missed  the  beautiful  girl,  and 
sometimes  feared  for  her  safety;  yet, 
he  believed  she  had  gone  to  hear  with 
her  own  ears,  Sherman's  plans,  and 
somehow  so  trusted  her  that,  despite 
the  danger  of  the  mission,  thought 
she  would  succeed.  Again,  he  and 
her  father  would  talk  together,  and 
become  so  exasperated  that  they 
would  resolve  to  follow  and  bring 
her  back  ;  but, — "Where  shall  we  go  ?" 
The  "old  South!"  How  shocked  it 
was  by  her  disappearance,  and  how  it 
conjectured  concerning  the  cause. 
One  ventured  to  suggest  that  she  had 
fled  with  a  Federal  officer,  but  the 
young  soldier  heard  this  and  made  it 
so  uncomfortable  for  the  suggester 
that  he  was  glad  to  retract  and  smooth 
things  over. 

On  the  morning  of  October  31, 
1864,  the  young  soldier  had  persuad- 
ed Mr.  Fair  to  try  to  break  his  long 
fast  by  partaking  of  the  frugal  meal 
offorded  them ;  but,  after  repeated  ef- 
forts the  old  man  proved  his  inability 
to  eat,  and  sat  back,  dejected  in  his 
chair.  After  a  few  moments'  silence, 
he  cried  out  in  his  despair : 

"Oh,  my  darling  child !  You  may 
even  now,  be  the  prey  of  a  brutal 
mercenary,"  and  he  could  not  bear 
the  thought,  but  rose  to  his  feet,  and 
—hark !  ^ 

"Pappy!" 

"W'hat  was  that?" 

"Pappy!" 

"My  child's  voice  to  lure  me  to 
hope  — " 

"No,  no.  Pappy,  I'm  here,  safe  and 

But  the  old  man  had  bounded  to 
her  room,  and  laid  his  head  upon  her 
breast ;   and,    in   his    excitement    the 


486 


WATSON'S  JEFFERSOXIAX  MAGAZINE 


young  soldier  followed,  wanting  the 
evidence  of  his  eyes  that  Zora  was 
there. 

"Pappy,  do  not  you  know  that  I 
would  not  leave  you  except  for  your 
sake  ?'' 

■'Do  not  leave  me  again  for  any- 
body's sake,  Zora,  will  you?" 

"No,  Pappy,  I  will  not."  Where- 
upon the  young  soldier  gazed  out  of 
the  window  down  the  street,  as 
though  something  interested  him 
there. 

When  Zora  was  sufficiently  rested 
and  had  slept,  she  told  her  story  in 
her  own  sweet  way  to  "Pappy"  and 
her  friends,  and  this  is  what  the  lit- 
tle  heroine  said : 

"When  the  soldiers  said  they  did 
not  know  w^hether  Gen.  Sherman 
would  go  to  Tennessee  after  Gen. 
Hood,  or  march  to  the  sea  through 
Georgia,  I  determined  to  find  out 
from  him  what  he  intended  to  do,  and 
so  I  disguised  myself  to  look  as  much 
as  possible  like  Aunt  Dinah," — at 
which  Aunt  Dinah  ejaculated: 

"Lis'n  to  dat  blessed  chile." 

" — got  some  walnut  stain,  tied  my 
head  up  in  a  bandana,  put  on  Aunt 
Dinah's  sunbonnet  and  dress,  all  of 
which  was  fun,  but.  Oh,  how  fright- 
ened I  was  when  I  got  off  in  the 
woods  alone ;  and,  I  want  to  tell  you 
all,  my  friends — you  say  that  it  was 
a  deed  of  heroism — I  do  not  look  at 
it  that  way — but  if  it  was,  I  have 
been  rewarded,  for  I  learned  in  that 
perilous  journey  to  do  more  than  'say' 
my  prayers — I  learned  to  pray.  This 
is  the  reflex  blessing,  and  who  can 
say  that  the  One  to  whom  I  prayed 
did  not  give  me  strength  to  brave  the 
darkness ;  did  not  deliver  me  from 
the  soldiers ;  did  not  keep  my  foot 
from  falling  as  I  passed  over  the  dark 
waters ;  did  not  deliver  me  from  the 
enemy's  hand?  Yes,  I  believe  that 
General  Lee's  God  is  One  to  be  trust- 


ed, and  I  am  glad  of  the  iiiission  that 
has  led  me  to  trust  Him." 

H  there  was  a  dry  eye  in  that  as- 
sembly as  she  ceased  speaking,  I  do 
not  know  it — but  some  of  the  men, 
willing  to  change  the  subject,  in- 
quired : 

''Did  you  see  Sherman?" 

"Yes,  I  served  him  at  table.  By 
telling  the  same  story  in  substance,  all 
along  the  way,  I  think  they  permitted 
me  to  go  into  his  presence,  more  as 
a  jest  than  anything  else,  because  they 
knew  that  every  phase  of  negro  life 
was  interesting  to  him,  and  when  I 
found  myself  before  him,  I  told  him 
that  I  loved  freedom  better  than  my 
life ;  that  I  had  not  turned  against 
my  people,  but  that  I  longed  for  free- 
dom, and  that  I  would  follow  where 
freedom  led,  and  that  I  had  come  to 
him  for  protection. 

He  replied  that  all  of  the  negroes 
would  soon  be  freed,  and  would  be 
protected  too. 

*  "]\Iass  Sharman,  kin  I  march  wid 
yo'  when  yo'  marches?" 

"We  would  be  glad  to  have  your 
valuable  escort,  Mrs.  Dinah,  but  it  is 
impossible  as  women  are  not  allowed 
in  the  army,  and  even  so,  you  are  too 
old  to  stand  the  hardships." 

"I  buried  my  face  in  my  hands  in 
the  deepest  dejection,  and  he  said," 

"  "  ']\Take  youreslf  useful  around 
the  house  until  we  get  out  of  it  to 
burn  it,  and  you  may  go  with  us  until 
you  reach  your  home  in  Georgia,  and 
there  you  may  live  and  die ;  but  mark 
you,  be  loyal  and  faithful,  telling  no 
tales."  ' 

"  'You  may  go  zvith  us  until  you  reach 
your  home  in  Georgia!'  thought  'Mrs. 
binah' !" 

"  'Mrs.  Dinah,  would  you  mind  tell- 
ing me — if  you  will  pardon  me — if 
you  are  an  Indian,  negro,  or  what  na- 
tionality you  claim,  for  you  are  a  pe- 
culiar    color.       I     have     seen    many 


ZORA  FAIR 


487 


'colors'  and  races,  but  am  unable  to 
place  you.     You're  a  peculiar  color.'  " 

"  'Law  chile,  it  isen  many  niggers 
what  knows  dere  own  degree,"  (ped- 
igree,) "  'an  I  aint  no  inception." 

"Then  they  fell  to  discussing  among 
themselves,  and  came  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  I  was  a  mixture,  but  that  if 
I  had  a  drop  of  blood,  even  tainted 
with  negro  blood,  I  was  a  negro." 

The  noble  exploit  of  Zora  Fair,  the 
Little  Spy,  was  heralded  wherever  it 
was  dared  to  make  it  known.  Tele- 
grams were  sent  to  President  Davis, 
and  to  Governor  Brown;  but,  alas,  if 
they  credited  the  young  woman's  sto- 
ry, there  were  no  Confederate  troops 
to  impede  the  relentless  ride  of  the 
devastating  Union  army,  under  the 
leadership  of  a  general  who  tried  to 
make  war  what  he  had  named  it;  and 
they  had  but  to  clinch  their  hands  as 
fathers  and  husbands  were  slain,  the 
rights  of  mothers,  sisters,  and  daugh- 
ters, were  desecrated,  and  homes 
were  razed  to  the  ground. 

Many  of  the  Oxford  refugees  fled 
before  the  face  of  the  destroyer,  but 
Zora  and  her  father  had  no  where  to 
go,  or  the  means  to  go  with,  and  so 
remained. 

Early  in  November,  on  a  beautiful 
Autumn  day,  two  Federal  soldiers 
dashed  up  to  the  door  of  a  house  in 


Oxford  that  they  saw  was  occupied, 
and  which  was  the  residence  of  Col. 
Capers,  and  invited  themselves  to 
supper.  A  "blue's"  invitation  at  that 
period  was  a  command.  Inadvertent- 
ly, perhaps,  it  was  made  known  to 
Mrs.  Capers  that  they  were  looking 
for  a  woman  spy,  when  Mrs.  Capers 
said  to  the  mulatto  girl  waiting  upon 
the  table. 

"Ellen,  go  and  bring  some  hot  bis- 
cuits," with  a  look  that  Ellen  under- 
stood. Swiftly  she  crossed  the  street, 
warned  Miss  Fair,  and  returned  to 
the  dining  room  with  the  hot  bis- 
cuits. 

Zora  Fair  fled  to  the  country  hills, 
taking  refuge  in  a  farm  house.  Her 
father  successfully  concealed  himself 
on  the  premises.  Their  little  refuge 
home  was  destroyed  by  Sherman  on 
his  "March  to  the  Sea."  Zora  taught 
a  country  school,  and  after  the  war, 
returned  to  Charleston.  Of  the  sub- 
sequent history  of  the  "Little  Spy," 
the  writer  wishes  she  knew,  but  thinks 
she  is  justified  in  supposing  that  a 
Confederate  soldier  was  no  less  val- 
orous in  love  than  a  Confederate 
maiden  in  the  accomplishment  of  her 
purpose ;  for, 

') 

Of  the  bravest,  truest,  and  best. 

The  Confederate  soldier  was  he. 


DR.  BEN  REITMAN,  THE  TRAMP  REFORMER 


By  ARNOLD  M.  ANDERSON 


OR  a  man  of  but 
thirty-one  years  of 
age,  Dr.  Ben  Reit- 
man,  of  the  Broth- 
erhood Welfare  As- 
sociation, has  per- 
haps had  as  varied 
and  strenuous  a  ca- 
reer as  any  person  now  Hving.  The 
"King  of  the  Hoboes,"  as  he  is  often 
called,  has  been  the  subject  of  a  thou- 
sand facetious  newspaper  write-ups 
•within  the  last  year,  and  only  re- 
cently was  arrested  in  Chicago  for 
leading  a  parade  of  the  unemployed. 
Contrary  to  one's  expectation,  from 
the  nature  of  his  experiences,  Dr. 
Reitman  is  not  an  uneducated  enthu- 
siast, but  is  a  practicing  physician  of 
good  standing.  He  is  a  graduate  of 
the  American  College  of  Medicine 
and  Surgery  in  Chicago;  he  studied 
pathology  under  the  famous  Profes- 
sor Virchow  of  Berlin,  and  was  a 
student  of  Professor  Metchinkoff, 
the  distinguished  bacterologist  of  the 
Pastuer  Institute  of  Paris.  He  him- 
self is  the  author  of  a  work  on  pa- 
thology and  is  a  member  of  the  Chi- 
cago Medical  Society,  the  Illinois 
State  Medical  Society  and  the  Ameri- 
can   Medical   Association. 

As  a  physician  he  has  built  up  a 
lucrative  practice  in  Chicago,  and 
this  in  spite  of  his  frequent  absences 
in  behalf  of  his  work  of  bettering  the 
condition  of  the  tramp  class.  He 
taught  a  year  in  the  college,  from 
which  he  was  graduated,  was  a  pro- 


DR.  BEN  REITMAN. 

fessor  in  the  Chicago  College  of  Den- 
tal Surgery  and  the  Chicago  Veteri- 
nary College,  and  served  for  a  short 
time  as  a  ship's  surgeon.  At  the 
time  of  the  earthquake  he  was  a  pa- 
thologist in  an  army  hospital  of  San 
Francisco. 

During  his  life  as  a  tramp  he  has 
been  arrested  as  an  anarchist  in 
France,  was  shipwrecked  in  the  At- 


DR.  BEN  REITMAN,  THE  TRAMP  REFORMER 


489 


lantic,  was  a  lireman  on  a  New  York 
liner,  a  revolutionist  in  Russia,  a 
tramp  in  every  state  in  the  Union  and 
a  traveler  in  Europe,  Asia,  Africa, 
and  South  America. 

Reitman  was  born  in  St.  Paul, 
Minnesota,  of  Jewish  parents,  but 
from  infancy  Chicago  has  been  his 
home.  He  attended  public  school  un- 
til he  reached  the  age  of  fifteen  years 
when  he  took  his  first  hobo  trip — 
via  slow  freight  to  Lima,  Ohio.  He 
was  absent  on  this  excursion  for  two 
weeks,  but  a  few  months  later  he  was 
off  again.  He  speedily  became  a  will- 
ing victim  of  the  wanderlust  and 
took  numerous  short  trips  into  neigh- 
boring states.  A  year  later  he  be- 
came more  ambitious  and  planned  a 
tour  of  the  world.  He  beat  his  way 
to  New  York  and  without  a  cent  in 
his  pockets,  stowed  away  in  a  vessel 
bound  for  Europe.  He  was  discov- 
ered and  compelled  to  work  for  his 
passage  as  a  stoker.  On  this  trip  he 
"bummed"  his  way  through  Ireland, 
England,  several  countries  of  the 
continent,  the  Barbary  coast,  Egypt, 
Arabia,  Persia,  India  and  China, 
finally  arriving  in  San  Francisco.  He 
soon  took  other  trips  and  visited  Can- 
ada, South  America  and  South  Afri- 
ca. 

In  1899  at  Odessa,  he  joined  the 
Russian  revolutionists  and  was  sent 
as  a  secret  agent  to  solicit  money  for 
the  cause  from  the  French  govern- 
ment. This  venture  resulted  in  his 
arrest  as  an  anarchist  and  he  was 
only  liberated  by  proving  his  Ameri- 
can citizenship. 

It  was  while  he  was  in  Europe  that 
he  decided  to  study  medicine.  At 
Liverpool  he  attended  a  medical 
school  for  a  time  and  later  studied 
under  the  famous  professors  before 
mentioned,  on  the  continent.  In  1904 
he  completed  his  medical  education 
at  the  American  College  of  Medicine 


and  Surgery  in  Chicago.  Then,  af- 
ter brief  terms  of  teaching  and  lec- 
turing, he  served  as  a  ship's  surgeon 
on  the  Mediterranean  and  returned 
to  Chicago  to  practice. 

In  all,  Reitman  has  beat  the  Ameri- 
can railroads  out  of  the  fare  for  50,- 
000  miles  of  travel.  He  has  sailed 
75,000  miles  on  the  seas  and  rode 
half  of  that  distance  free.  While 
penniless  he  sailed  from  Boston  to 
Liverpool,  London  to  Hamburg,  Hull 
to  Gothenburg,  Havre  to  New  York 
and  New  York  to  Naples.  Notwith- 
standing his  many  free  rides,  he  has 
spent  in  the  neighborhood  of  two 
thousand  dollars  in  travel  fares.  In 
his  wanderings  he  has  traveled  by 
almost  every  mode  of  conveyance  in 
many  different  countries.  In  the  ag- 
gregate he  has  covered  about  200,- 
000  miles  of  land  and  sea.  On  one 
particular  European  trip  he  subsist- 
ed for  four  months  with  but  seven 
dollars  in  cash. 

It  is  scarcely  needful  to  mention 
that  Reitman  has  been  in  jail.  He 
has  tasted  the  bread  of  fifty  prisons 
and  recalls  with  nausea  the  fare  of 
certain  jails  on  the  continent,  but  in 
the  Orient,  strange  to  note,  he  was 
treated  more  humanely.  He  has  beg- 
ged under  a  thousand  varying  condi- 
tions ;  practiced  all  sorts  of  expedi- 
ents to  gain  food  and  shelter ;  lived 
by  the  charity  of  Bowery  missions, 
the  Salvation  Army,  London  soup 
kitchens,  almshouses,  hospitals,  and  a 
hundred  odd  institutions,  religious 
and  otherwise.  He  has  palmed  him- 
self off  as  a  sailor  in  distress,  a  sol- 
dier of  misfortune  and  in  numerous 
other  guises  imposed  on  the  kind- 
hearted  or  charitable-minded  the 
world  over.  Bare  boards  have  often 
been  his  only  mattress ;  many  a  time 
has  he  found  peaceful  repose  in  the 
hay  stack;  frequently  has  he  slept  in 
the  open  with  only  the  sky  for  a  cov- 


490 


WATSON'S  JEFFERSOXIAX  MAGAZINE 


DR.  REITMAN  IN  THE  GUISE  OF   A   TRAMP. 

erlet  and  all  manner  of  severe  weath- 
er has  found  him  shelterless. 

It  would  seem  that  such  a  multi- 
plicity of  rough  experiences  during 
sixteen  years  of  wandering  would 
have  given  him  a  hard  face,  a  hard 
heart,  an  irresponsible  nature  and  a 
broken  down  physique,  but  the  oppo- 
site is  the  fact.  By  nature  blessed 
with  a  large  frame  and  strong  con- 
stitution, he  has  survived  his  hard 
knocks  with  hardly  a  trace  of  ill.  His 
face  is  kindly,  though  sad;  his  heart 
is  as  tender  as  a  woman's  and  his 
temperament,  while  melancholy,  is 
deeply  sympathetic.  The  man  is  en- 
grossed in  his  cause  with  the  zeal  of 
a  fanatic,  yet  he  is  never  violent  in 
his  methods.  He  seeks  to  bring  about 
his  reforms  simjjly  by  reason  and  leg- 
islation. Rcitman  may  even  be  con- 
sidered  handsome.      He   has  glowing 


dark  eyes,  strong  regular  features  and 
a  clear  complexion.  There  are  no 
marks  of  dissipation  on  his  face  and 
no  lines  denoting  lustful  desires.  He 
is  nervous  and  speaks  hurriedly, 
sometimes  almost  irrelevantly,  by  rea- 
son of  the  rush  of  ideas  which  cla- 
mor for  utterance  at  the  same  time. 
But  there  is  no  confusion  in  his  aims, 
his  opinions,  his  purposes.  He  ever 
sees  in  his  mind  the  unfortunate  con- 
dition of  the  class  whose  lot  he  would 
alleviate,  and  with  persistence,  if  not 
patience,  is  ever  prosecuting  the  work 
he  has  adopted  for  his  mission  in 
life. 

It  was  due  to  J.  Eads  Howe,  the 
millionaire  tramp  and  philanthropist 
of  St.  Louis,  founder  of  the  Brother- 
hood Welfare  Association,  that  Reit- 
man  became  inspired  in  his  present 
work.  Though  by  reason  of  his  per- 
sonal experiences  as  a  tramp,  he  felt 
a  strong  kinship  with  his  brothers  of 
the  road  and  yearned  to  do  something 
toward  the  amelioration  of  their  con- 
dition, yet  he  had  no  definite  ideas  of 
procedure  up  to  INIay,  1907.  At  this 
time  he  was  in  St.  Louis  after  a  ram- 
ble in  the  west  and  on  a  Sunday  aft- 
ernoon happened  to  drop  in  at  a  meet- 
ing of  the  Brotherhood  Welfare  As- 
sociation. The  subject  under  discus- 
sion at  that  gathering  of  vagabonds 
was  the  vagrancy  law.  Reitman  had 
just  been  released  from  jail  after 
serving  a  sentence  for  vagrancy  and 
he  arose  and  made  a  speech.  From 
that  hour  he  saw  his  way  clear.  Fresh 
from  an  enlightening  conference  with 
Mr.  Howe,  he  returned  to  Chicago 
and  at  once  organized  a  branch 
Brotherhood  W^elfare  Association  in 
that  city.  Howe  and  Reitman  by  no 
means  agree  as  to  details  in  the  re- 
form for  which  they  are  working — 
each  is  pursuing  an  individual  course 
— but,  like  Count  Rumford,  both  are 
endeavoring  "to  restore  hope  to  the 


DR.  BEN  REITMAN,  THE  TRAMP  REFORMER 


491 


hopeless  and  despairing,  gently  to 
compel  the  vicious,  the  tramp  and  the 
beggar  into  habits  of  industry  and 
contentment."  The  creed  of  the  as- 
sociation is  "a  square  deal  for  tramps 
and  kindness  and  no  red  tape." 

A  better  understanding  of  the  sit- 
uation may  be  gleaned  from  the  fol- 
lowing statements  made  by  Dr.  Reit- 
man :  "Charitable  organizations  think 
the  tramp  is  a  grafter ;  tramps  regard 
the  charitable  organizations  as  a 
graft;  both  are  wrong. 

"The  United  States  and  England 
are  the  only  two  countries  in  which 
vagrancy  and  begging  are  unlawful. 
In  some  European  countries  begging 
is  licensed  by  law.  In  some  Oriental 
countries  begging  is  a  respectable  oc- 
cupation. 

"In  America  the  tramp  beggar  is 
an  outcast,  a  social  leper,  a  being  be- 
yond the  pale.  He  is  despised,  mal- 
treated, jailed,  starved,  refused  work, 
treated  as  a  criminal.  I  know  these 
things  because  I  have  tramped  all 
over  the  world  begging  my  way.  I 
have  a  mission  in  life  now.  It  is  to 
secure  the  passage  of  laws  which  will 
give  work  in  every  city  and  town  to 
any  tramp  who  seeks  it,  and  which  will 
pay  him  fifty  cents  a  day.  The  ma- 
jority of  tramps  wish  to  return  to  a 
decent  life,  but  are  unable  to  because 
no  one  will  give  them  work.  This 
law  would  give  every  tramp  a  chance. 

"There  are  a  quarter  of  a  million 
tramps  in  this  country.  A  great  prob- 
lem confronts  us.  How  shall  we 
handle  it?  By  abusing  the  tramp  and 
hounding  him  from  town  to  town 
with  a  constant  'move  on'  policy,  or 
shall  we  develop  the  latent  good  and 
energy  in  the  man? 

"When  we  throw  a  man  into  jail 
because  he  will  not  work  let  us  force 
him  to  work  and  pay  him  for  his  la- 
bor, thus  teaching  him  the  only  lesson 
that  will  ever  redeem  him. 


"Wc  are  spending  millions  of  dol- 
lars in  building  jails  and  workhouses 
where  we  force  men  to  work  without 
compensation.  When  the  vagrant  is 
released  from  custody  he  is  just  as 
liable  to  arrest  for  vagrancy  as  he 
was  when  he  was  first  arrested.  What 
kind  of  a  system  of  correction  is  this 
which  cannot  possibly  correct?  Rath- 
er it  encourages  dishonesty  and  ir- 
responsibility. Instead  of  putting  so 
many  millions  into  jails,  why  not 
spend  a  part  of  the  money  in  a  man- 
ner which  will  give  the  released  pris- 
oner a  chance  for  regeneration  ?" 

The  aim  of  the  Brotherhood  Wel- 
fare Association,  which  is  as  yet, 
more  of  a  name  than  an  organiza- 
tion, is  to  help  the  vagabond  reform 
by  making  it  possible  for  him  to  get 
clean  clothes;  get  a  job,  and  to  dis- 
courage the  tramp  evil  by  wise  and 
sane  legislation.  The  reformatory 
measures  advocated  are : 

1.  That  institutions  be  founded 
which  will  provide  for  persons  need- 
ing temporary  assistance. 

2.  That  the  existing  vagrancy 
laws  be  radically  revised. 

3.  That  the  railroads  be  forced 
to  prevent  tramps  beating  their  way 
on  the  trains. 

The  first  of  these  measures  needs 
no  explanation.  The  second  is  set 
forth  in  a  bill,  drawn  up  by  Dr.  Reit- 
man  and  Charles  W.  Espey,  of  Chi- 
cago, which  proposes  as  an  amend- 
ment to  the  vagrancy  acts  that  all  va- 
grants arrested  shall  be  compelled  to 
hard  labor  and  receive  a  payment  of 
fifty  cents  a  day  for  such  labor;  that 
upon  the  release  of  the  prisoner,  a 
part  of  the  money  thus  earned  to  his 
credit  be  expended  for  him  for  clean 
and  decent  clothing,  if  it  is  needed, 
or  for  the  purchase  of  transportation 
to  another  place,  if  the  prisoner  so 
desires ;  that  in  case  any  tramp  has 
been  previously  arrested  for  vagran- 


492 


WATSON'S  JEFFERSONIAN  MAGAZINE 


cy,  he  shall  receive  only  forty  cents  a 
day  for  his  labor;  that  in  case  it  is 
learned  that  he  has  a  family,  the  sum 
of  two  dollars  a  week  be  deducted 
from  his  credit  and  forwarded  to  his 
family.  Whatever  the  defects  of  the 
proposed  amendment,  it  will  be  seen 
that  it  embodies  the  essence  of  good 
toward  the  reform  intended. 

Too  often  the  existing  vagrancy 
laws  scent  of  outright  graft.  In 
thousands  of  places  the  justice  of  the 
peace  or  police  judge  receives  a  stated 
fee  for  every  case  he  tries;  the  con- 
stable a  similar  fee  for  every  arrest 
he  makes  and  a  third  party  has  the 
privilege  of  feeding  prisoners  at  the 
rate  of  from  fifty  to  seventy-five 
cents  a  day.  The  community  must 
pay  these  charges  and  in  return  the 
only  benefit  received  is  the  labor  of 
the  prisoner.  No  one  is  benefited  ex- 
cept the  petty  officials,  and  the  ten- 
dency is  not  to  correct  the  tramp  evil. 
On  the  other  hand  if  the  tramp,  upon 
his  release  from  jail,  were  able  to 
appear  clean  and  respectable,  the 
chance  of  his  securing  a  job  would 
be  bettered. 

The  third  measure  is  indeed  a  nov- 
elty, but  would  without  doubt,  make 
hobo  travel  almost  impracticable.  The 
idea  is  to  penalize  the  railroads  in 
order  to  increase  their  vigilance  in 
preventing  tramp  travel.  The  rail- 
road bill  framed  by  Dr.  Reitman  pro- 
vides that  the  railway  companies  be 
compelled  to  pay  a  fine  of  $5,000  for 
every  tramp  killed  on  a  railroad;  $1,- 
000  for  every  one  injured  and  $100 
for  every  one  caught  stealing  a  ride. 
It  is  proposed  that  the  money  indem- 
nity for  deaths  shall  go  to  the  heirs 
of  the  deceased  or,  if  such  heirs  can- 
not be  located  within  a  specified  time, 
to  the  county  in  which  the  tramp  met 
his  death. 

It  is  estimated  that  the  American 
railroads  carry  over  200,000  diflferent 


tramps  every  year  and  that  of  this 
number,  5,000  are  runaway  boys.  In 
1906  about  5,000  tramps  were  killed 
on  the  railroads  of  this  country  and 
about  12,000  injured.  Every  year 
there  are  ten  times  as  many  tramps 
killed  as  railroad  employes  and  pas- 
sengers combined.  The  railway  com- 
panies are  not  held  criminally  liable 
for  the  deaths  of  trespassers  and  are 
not  even  obliged  to  bury  those  killed,, 
this  expense  accruing  to  the  county 
or  city  in  which  the  accident  takes 
place. 

"Railroad  employes,"  says  Reit- 
man, "are  largely  responsible  for  the 
great  volume  of  tramp  traffic  these 
days.  They  collect  a  small  fee  from 
the  hobo  and  allow  him  to  ride,  or  are 
too  good-natured  to  throw  him  oflT 
the  train.  The  railroad  officials  claim 
they  have  no  desire  to  carry  trespass- 
ers. Of  course  they  have  not,  bui 
still  they  do  not  remedy  the  evil  by 
the  regulations  now  in  force.  In  for- 
mer years  the  steamship  companies 
declared  they  were  powerless  to  pre- 
vent stowaways  from  entering  the 
country,  but  when  a  fine  of  $500  was 
imposed  for  each  stowaway  caught, 
it  was  wonderful  to  note  how  the 
vigilance  of  the  companies  increased 
and  the  number  of  stowaways  de- 
creased." 

Dr.  Reitman  spends  a  large  part 
of  his  time  traveling  about  the  coun- 
try at  his  own  expense — it  is  no  lon- 
ger necessary  for  him  to  beat  his  way 
— studying  sociological  conditions 
and  seeking  to  interest  persons  of 
influence  in  his  reform  schemes.  He 
presents  his  ideas  to  newspaj^ers,  pol- 
iticians, business  and  professional 
men ;  interviews  the  inmates  of  jails 
and  workhouses,  police  officers  and 
charity  workers :  lectures  and  carries 
on  correspondence  by  letter,  all  for  the 
purpose  of  awakening  a  wide  public 
interest.     In  the  last  year  he  has  m«t 


DR.  BEN  REITMAN,  THE  TRAMP  REFORMER 


493 


thousands  of  prominent  persons  and, 
while  he  is  not  generally  regarded  se- 
riously, he  has  set  many  communities 
to  thinking  and  already  certain  mu- 
nicipalities are  considering  his  va- 
grancy act  amendment.  None  can 
doubt  the  sincerity  of  the  man  in  his 
efforts  to  do  good,  whatever  may  be 
thought  of  his  methods.  The  need 
of  the  reform  in  question  is  most  evi- 
dent and  when  it  is  finally  accom- 
plished, by  whatever  means,  it  must 
be  recognized  that  the  initiative  ac- 
tion of  J.  Eads  Howe,  Dr.  Reitman 
and  the  Brotherhood  Welfare  Asso- 
ciation paved  the  way  to  success. 

To  illustrate  Dr.  Reitman's  char- 
acter and  methods  the  following  per- 
sonal exploits  are  here  chronicled.  In 
the  guise  of  a  tramp  and  bent  upon 
investigating  the  work  of  various 
charitable  organizations,  he  begged 
from  all  sorts  of  slum  v/orkers,  phil- 
anthropists, society  women  and  re- 
ligious institutions  and  also  applied 
for  work  at  the  free  employment 
agencies.  His  experiences  show  that 
the  tramp  has  great  difficulty  in  se- 
curing substantial  assistance  and 
work.  He  found  no  institution  which 
was  delighted  to  help  him.  The  re- 
port of  these  investigations  was  call- 
ed, by  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones,  the  so- 
ciological sensation  of  the  year. 

When  Judge  Sadler  and  the  health 
department  of  Chicago  started  a  cru- 
sade against  the  cheap  lodging  houses 
of  that  city,  Reitman  illustrated  most 
forceably  that  such  places  were  nec- 
essary until  better  lodging  houses 
were  substituted,  and  so  called  a  halt 
to  the  crusade. 

In  regard  to  the  municipal  lodg- 
ing house  of  Chicago,  he  pointed  out 
that  its  baths  were  better  than  the 
meals  served,  and  that  the  employes 
were  more  interested  in  asking  ques- 
tions than  in  providing  for  the  com- 
fort of  the  lodgers.     As  a  resnlt  of 


this  report  the  municipal  lodging 
house  has  undergone  certain  improve- 
ments :  better  sleeping  accommoda- 
tions have  been  provided;  a  free 
wash-room  has  been  opened  where 
the  tramp  may  cleanse  his  clothing; 
more  wholesome  meals  are  served  and 
numerous  other  less  important  re- 
forms inaugurated. 

In  May,  1907,  Reitman  gave  his 
famous  "hobo  banquet"  to  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-three  tramps,  at  the 
Windsor-CUfton  hotel  of  Chicago. 
Though  this  banquet  was  the  cause 
of  great  merriment  among  the  news- 
papers of  the  country,  yet  it  was  in 
reality  a  most  interesting  and  valua- 
ble sociological  experiment.  At  that 
dinner  a  number  of  the  vagabond 
guests  expressed  their  ideas  of  life 
and  explained  the  causes  of  their 
downfall.  Then  followed  the  tramp 
clinic  and  lecture.  This  was  the  first 
sociological  clinic  ever  held.  Dr. 
Reitman  presented  tramps  who  had 
been  doctors,  lawyers,  artists,  news- 
paper men,  musicians,  runaway  boys, 
criminals,  mechanics,  soldiers  and 
sailors.  This  clinic  demonstrated  that 
men  of  any  walk  of  life  may  become 
homeless  and  penniless,  therefore 
tramps  and  vagrants. 

It  is  not  one  of  Dr.  Reitman's  hob- 
bies to  reform  the  dictionary,  but  he 
has  suggested  revised  definitions  for 
the  words,  tramp,  hobo  and  bum.  The 
new  definitions  are : 

Tramp — A  man  who  does  not  work 
and  apparently  does  not  care  to  work 
because  it  interferes  with  his  travel- 
ing. 

Hobo — A  skilled,  or  unskilled,  non- 
employed  laborer  without  money, 
looking  for  work. 

Bum — A  man  who  frequents  low- 
class  saloons  and  begs  or  earns  a  few 
pennies  a  day  in  order  to  obtain 
drink.     He  is  usually  an  inebriate. 


494 


WATSON'S  JEFFERSOXIAX  MAGAZINE 


As  a  cure  for  the  tramp,  Reitman 
suggests  fining  the  railroads ;  for  the 
hobo,  institutions  providing  temporary 
work;  for  the  bum,  the  enforcement 
of  the  laws  against  selling  liquor  to 
habitual   drunkards. 

By  one  of  his  experiments,  Reitman 
showed  that  it  is  easier  for  a  man  to 
get  a  drink  than  to  get  a  meal  and 
that  any  person  without  money  can 
get  drunk  simply  by  loitering  around 
a  saloon  and  waiting  to  be  treated. 
Furthermore  he  begged  from  a  hun- 
dred ministers  and  a  hundred  saloon- 
keepers— the  latter  were  liberal  with 
drinks,  the  former  with  good  advice. 

Some  of  these  experiments  may  be 
eccentric,  yet  all  tend  to  throw  some 
light  on  the  subject  and  illustrate  the 
need  of  a  sane  and  reasonable  meth- 
od of  dealing  with  the  tramp  prob- 
lem. 


The  headquarters  of  Dr.  Reitman"'* 
branch  of  the  Brotherhood  Welfare 
Association  is  at  92  State  street,  Chi- 
cago, Illinois.  The  financial  re- 
sources of  the  association  are  meager, 
but  nevertheless  considerable  substan- 
tial work  is  being  done.  The  only 
question  asked  of  a  person  who  ap- 
plies for  assistance  is,  "What  do  you 
wish  us  to  do  for  you?"  A  conversa- 
tion about  things  in  general  is  carried 
on  with  each  applicant  and  in  an  in- 
direct and  unofifensive  manner  an  ef- 
fort is  made  to  learn  something  of 
his  personal  history.  Sometimes  small 
sums  of  money  are  given  to  the  most 
needy  and  all  assistance  possible  is 
given  them  in  securing  work.  In. 
the  meantime  the  propagandist,  Reit- 
man, is  exerting  his  greatest  eflforts 
to  influence  legislation  in  behalf  of 
his  cause. 


WHEN  WE  HAVE  SAID  GOOD-BYE 


495 


WHEN  WE  HAVE  SAID  GOOD-BYE 


The  sunset  plumes  shall  deck  the  purpling  west^ 

In  pomp  of  splendid  cloud  on  royal  sky  ; 
The  roads  and  woods  we  knew  and  loved  the  best 
Shall  be  by  faint  and  tender  breeze  caressed 
When  we  have  said  good-bye. 

The  fragrance  of  the  jessamine  will  swoon 

Through  the  still  night,  its  rich  perfume  will  vie 
With  honeysuckle  and  magnolia  bloom, 
'Til  morning  come,  as  once  for  us,  too  soon, 
When  we  have  said  good-bye. 

Across  the  vault  of  heaven  in  lace-like  foam 
The  star-shine  of  the  Milky  W^ay  shall  lie. 
One  changeless  thing  of   comfort,  when  I  roam 
Par  from  a  wormwood  mockery  of  home. 
And  we  have  said  good-bye. 

The  sun's  kiss  on  the  south  shall  be  as  bright. 

As  green  shall  be  the  wheat  fields  and  the  rye  ; 
While  the  long  lanes  shall  wait  for  us  bedight 
Wilh  ferns  and  flowers  and  soft  summer  light, 
When  we  have  said  good-bye. 

Yet,  for  us,  all  these  things  shall  henceforth  be 
Seen  through  a  mist  of  tears,  with  choking  sigh  : 

Full  well  I  know  your  own  heart,  achingly. 

Shall  feel  the  stab  of  myriad  memory, 
When  we  have  said  good-bye. 

Vain,  now,  my  warjjjing  and  reproachful  tears  ; 

Go  !  Pride  sufficeth;  and  your  bitter  cry, 
When  you  have  shed  the  superstitious  fears 
That  wrecked  our  pure  Arcadia  of  the  3  ears 

And  bade  you  say  good-bye. 

The  woven  fabric  of  our  lives  in  twain 

Is  rent.     To  what  avail  ?     For  we  so  soon  must  lie 
Where  nevermore  the  sunshine  or  the  rain 
May  see  us,  laughing,  hand  in  hand  again, 

When  we  have  said  good-bye. 

Ah,  love,  the  years'  oncreeping  will  be  slow 

Without  you.     Dumb  with  grief  I  long  to  die. 
That,  dead,  I  may  forget  I  let  you  go, 
And  never  wake,  in  weary  pain,  to  know 
That  we  have  said  good-bye. 

— Grace  Kirkland. 


SAY  OF  OTHER  EDITORS 


Hon.   Thos.    E.    Watson— The   Dream   of 
His  Life,    How  it  Was   Dispelled 
But  is  Still  His  Inspiration. 

In  his  two  addresses  to  the  Popu- 
list convention  in  Atlanta  Thursday, 
Hon.  Thos.  E.  Watson  told  the  story 
of  his  life,  in  so  far  as  it  is  related  to 
his  political  activity.  If  that  story  is 
believed  by  the  people  it  must  so  ele- 
vate him  in  the  ej'es  of  those  among 
his  own  people  who  have  opposed  him 
that  all  Georgians  will  not  only  be 
proud  of  him,  but  will  bid  him  go  on, 
and  give  him  their  aid  in  the  work  he 
has    set    himself    to    do. 

That  Mr.  Watson  is  a  great  man 
even  those  who  most  bitterly  oppose 
him  always  gladly  concede.  As  a  law- 
3'er  he  early  in  life  established  a  repu- 
tation, which  gave  him  place  among  the 
most  successful  practitioners  at  the  bar. 
As  an  orator  he  has  won  a  fame  the 
greatness  of  which  is  attested  by  the 
large  audiences  he  draws  whenever  he 
is  billed  to  speak.  As  an  author  he  is 
recognized  as  among  the  greatest  his- 
torians of  the  time;  and  no  Georgian, 
be  he  friend  or  opponent  of  Watson, 
would  consider  his  library  complete 
without  Watson's  historical  works.  He 
is  one  of  the  great  sons  of  this  grand 
old  state,  and  yet,  while  he  has  inspired 
devotion  to  himself  in  many  of  his  fel- 
low citizens  such  as  it  is  given  to  but 
few  men  to  inspire,  he  is  hated  by  oth- 
ers with  an  intensity  which  is  blight- 
ing  in   its   degree.   •  Is   it    not   strange? 

In  his  private  life  Mr.  Watson  is 
blameless.  In  the  very  bitterest  of  the 
fights  that  have  been  made  against  him, 
when  everything  was  charged  that  could 
possibly  be  charged,  not  even  a  breath 
of  scandal  or  wrong  was  breathed 
against  his  private  life.  Nor  has  he 
ever  been  seriously  charged  with  graft 
or  dishonesty  in  any  form  in  business 
transactions,  which  is  certainly  a  re- 
freshing example  in  these  times,  when 
so  many  public  men  do  questionable 
things     for    personal      gain.       Had      he 


chosen  to  make  a  financial  asset  of  his 
unquestioned  talent  for  political  work,  it 
is  readily  conceded  that  he  could  have 
amassed  a  great  fortune.  But  on  all 
these  opportunities  he  has  turned  his 
back.  Some  puny  charges  of  this  na- 
ture have  indeed  been  made  in  the  heat 
of  political  antagonism,  but  that  they 
were  insincere  is  proven  by  the  fact 
that  they  always  died  at  once  when 
they  could  no  longer  serve  the  purpose 
for  which  they  were  told.  And  yet 
this  man,  talented  far  above  ordinary 
men,  clean,  honest  and  upright  in  all 
his  dealings,  is  more  intensely  opposed 
in  the  public  work  he  would  do,  by 
his  fellow  Georgians,  than  any  other 
Georgian   living. 

It  is  strange,  passing  strange,  and  it 
is  all,  as  Mr.  Watson  claims,  because 
he  has  been  misunderstood.  It  was  to 
clear  away  this  misunderstanding,  if 
possible,  that  he  laid  bare  the  secret 
ambition  of  his  life,  born  of  the  dream 
of  his  early  manhood,  which  to  bring 
to  reality  has  been  the  mainspring  of 
all   his   action. 

The  blight  of  poverty  fell  upon  his 
life  when  he  was  scarcely  more  than 
a  bo3^.  It  drove  him  out  of  the  college 
before  he  could  complete  the  education 
he  craved,  and  compelled  him  to  go  to 
work  to  earn  his  bread.  He  became 
a  school  teacher,  but  at  the  same  time 
remained  a  student;  strongly  drawn  to 
the  study  of  history  as  it  bore  upon  the 
betterment  of  the  condition  of  the  peo- 
ple. And  as  to  every  boy  and  young 
man  of  spirit  there  comes  a  dream  of 
what  he  shall  accomplish  in  life,  so 
there  came  to  this  backwoods  teacher 
and  student  this  dream.  He  would  be 
a  tribune  of  the  people,  enter  the  lists 
and  become  their  champion  to  contend 
for    their    rights. 

It  is  the  men  that  are  animated  by 
one  great  thought  and  purpose  who 
become  the  great  men  in  that  endeavor 
to  which  they  devote  themselves.  Hav- 
ing this  purpose  in  mind  he  studied  law 
and    engaged    in    the    profession,    not    to 


SAY  OF  OTHER  EDITORS 


497 


become  a  great  lawyer  and  therewith  be 
content,  but  that  he  might  use  it  as  a 
means  to  the  end  he  had  in  view.  It  was 
natural,  then,  that  he  should  have  offer- 
ed and  been  elected  a  member  of  the 
legislature  almost  as  soon  as  he  reached 
man's  estate.  The  great  opportunity 
came  with  the  organization  of  the  Farm- 
ers'  Alliance. 

That  was  a  great  political  upheaval. 
Tlie  farmers  sought  to  better  their  con- 
dition, not  by  injuring  anybody  else  or 
hurting  any  other  legitimate  business, 
but  by  changing  conditions  which  were 
hurtful  to  them  and  the  people  at  large 
because  they  were  unjust.  Although 
not  a  member  of  this  body,  the  young 
dreamer  espoused  their  cause.  He 
couldn't  have  done  otherwise  and  re- 
mained true  to  the  lofty  ideal  he  had 
set   for  himself. 

He  was  elected  to  congress,  and  there, 
with  the  zeal  of  youth  and  all  the  ability 
he  could  command,  he  sought  to  secure 
the  enactment  of  legislation  demanded 
by  the  Farmers'  Alliance.  The  com- 
bined wisdom  of  this  order  had  decided 
that  its  demands  could  only  be  secured 
by  the  formation  of  a  new  party,  since 
both  old  parties  had  rejected  them  with 
scorn.  The  new  party  was  formed.  The 
alliancemen  became  members  of  it,  and 
Watson,  one  of  the  men  whom  they  had 
elected  to  congress,  also  became  a  mem- 
ber. From  this  dated  the  fierce  opposi- 
tion to  him.  He  became  the  chief  of  the 
new  party,  and  its  opponents  thoughi 
that  by  crushing  him  they  would  kill  the 
new  party.  Out  of  this  struggle  grew 
the  political  contest  in  the  tenth  dis- 
trict of  Georgia,  which  has  become  his- 
toric as  the  fiercest  political  fight  ever 
waged    in  this    country. 

It  lasted  for  six  years,  and  the  op- 
position completely  triumphed  over 
Watson.  He  fought  as  long  as  one 
spark  of  hope  of  ultimate  success  re- 
mained, and  when  it  was  all  over,  ruin- 
ed financially  and  utterly  worn  out  in 
body  and  mind,  the  bitter  conviction 
came  to  him  that  the  dream  of  his 
youth  had  turned  to  ashes.  What  sor- 
row  of   soul   this   caused   him    can   only 


be  understood  by  those  who  can  meas- 
ure the  depth  of  conviction  which  gives 
the  courage  to  fight  this  unequal  fight 
to    the    pnd. 

Then  it  was  that  he  devoted  himself 
wholly  to  literature,  and  wrote  those 
books  which  alone  would  have  brought 
him  fame  as  they  have  brought  him 
wealth.  But  even  on  his  books  was  the 
imprint  of  the  dream  of  his  youth,  for 
they  were  all  written  to  teach  what  he 
had  contended  for  in  politics.  The  Ro- 
man Sketches,  The  Story  of  France,  Na- 
poleon, Thomas  Jefferson  and  Andrew 
Jackson,  all  pointed  to  the  struggle  for 
popular  rights  against  the  unjust  op- 
pression of  the  favored  classes,  and 
Bethany  w^as  written  to  present  the 
cause  of  the  South,  for  Mr.  Watson  is 
as  intensel}'  Southern  as  he  is  Jefferson- 
ian. 

Then  again  there  came  a  change, 
when  Parker  was  nominated  upon  a 
platform  which  was  so  nearly  republi- 
can that  his  running  mate  said  of  it 
that  there  was  no  difference  between 
the  two.  He  made  the  race  for  presi- 
dent as  the  Populist  nominee  in  1904, 
a  race  that  was  hopeless,  so  far  as  the 
possibility  of  gaining  victory  was  con- 
cerned, but  the  result  of  which  has  been 
the  election  and  administration  of  a  Re- 
publican president  of  such  strong  reform 
convictions  that  by  his  enemies  he  is 
called  a  Populist,  and  the  adoption  of 
Populist  principles  in  the  Democratic 
platform  almost  in  their  entirety.  And 
just  so  he  is  again  making  an  equally 
hopeless  race  this  year,  to  compel  the 
recognition  of  the  just  claims  of  the 
South  by  the  Democratic  party,  without 
which  that  party  can  not  succeed,  or 
would  be  useless  to  the  cause  of  the 
people  if  it  should  succeed. 

In  this  struggle  the  years  have  passed. 
The  young  man  who  entered  it  with  all 
the  fire  and  enthusiasm  of  youth  has 
passed  his  fiftieth  year.  He  no  longer 
desires  any  office,  for  he  has  come  to 
believe  that  he  can  serve  the  cause  he 
loves  now  as  he  did  when  it  was  the 
dream  of  his  youth,  better  by  not  hold- 
ing  any   office   than   h^   could   in   office. 


498 


WATSON'S  JEFFERSON  IAN  MAGAZINE 


He  is  lioping  that  at  last,  after  all  this 
bitter  experience,  the  people  of  his  state 
will  understand  him,  and  that,  instead 
of  expending  the  best  of  their  energies 
in  fighting  him  they  will  take  his  out- 
stretched hand  and  all  Georgians  unite 
in  the  great  purpose  which  surely  is  the 
dearest  of  every  Georgian  and  of  every 
Southerner,  to  compel  the  Democratic 
party  to  give  just  recognition  to  the 
South,  which  it  has  not  done  since  the 
Civil  War,  in  order  that  the  Democratic 
party  may  again  be  made  what  it  once 
was  to  the  people. — W.  J.  Henning,  in 
Augusta    Herald. 


"  God  is  in  His  World." 

Uncle  Remus'  last  message,  taken  in 
part  from  the  Uncle  Remus  Home  Mag- 
azine, which  he  edited,  is  a  fitting  ex- 
ample of  his  attitude  toward  the  world 
and  beliefs  of  today.  Speaking  in  the 
person  of  the  Farmer,  he  has  this  to 
say: 

"The  Farmer  has  said  that  reason  is 
impotent  here,  but  he  was  speaking  of 
the  reason  that  coldly  applies  itself  to 
human  afifairs;  he  was  speaking  of  the 
reason  that  is  polished  up  in  the  schools, 
and  fitted  for  the  needs  of  speculative 
philosophy  and  science;  but  there  is  a 
form  of  human  reason  which  is  neither 
of  the  schools  nor  the  academies,  which 
finds  nothing  difficult  in  the  Chirstian 
religion — nothing  doubtful  and  nothing 
that  cannot  find  an  explanation  in  the 
mercy  of  the  Creator  and  the  desperate 
needs  of  the  human  race.  But  to  apply 
this  form  of  reason  requires  an  attitude 
somewhat  diflferent  from  that  which  has 
become  such  a  marked  feature  of  the 
men  and  women  of  our  time — the  atti- 
tude that  speaks  of  great  and  cunning, 
and  the  overweening  desire  of  display. 
We  must  become  as  little  children,  and 
who  does  not  desire  in  his  heart  of 
hearts  to  imitate  the  fresh  innocence  of 
the  youngsters  who  come  and  go  before 
our  eyes,  and  who  contribute  in  such 
large  measure  to  the  satisfaction  which 
we  have  in  life?     *     *     * 

"The  attitude  of  one  huge  company 
toward    its    competitors    constitutes    the 


most  complete  display  of  this  particular 
form  of  business  knavery  that  has  ever 
been  known,  if  we  take  the  word  of 
those  who  have  investigated  the  matter. 
The  exposure  so  stirred  the  public  mind 
that  one  of  the  representatives  of  the 
company  was  compelled  to  come  to  its 
defense.  His  excuse  was  that  business, 
when  there  is  competition,  is  in  the  na- 
ture of  a  struggle;  that  is  as  far  as  he 
will  go,  and  he  seems  to  think  that  such 
a  statement  is  sufficient  to  dispose  of 
the  charges  that  have  been  made  against 
his  company.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is 
neither  an  answer  nor  an  explanation. 
There  is  always  a  struggle  where  there 
is  business  competition,  but  it  need  not 
be  an  unfair  or  an  underhanded  strug- 
gle; the  elements  of  burglary  or  rob- 
bery need  not  enter  into  it.  All  the  bus- 
iness transactions  that  the  world  has 
ever  witnessed  cannot  succeed  in  de- 
stroying the  potency  of  the  golden  rule: 
by  that  all  men  will  be  measured,  and 
the  greater  their  greed  the  greater  their 
punishment. 

"Let  it  not  be  supposed  by  those  who 
imagine  that  they  are  unfortunate,  that 
the  colossal  fortunes  heaped  up  by  mod- 
ern business  methods  will  add  to  the 
ha,"piness  of  those  who  have  allowed 
greed  to  have  its  way.  All  the  gold  in 
the  world  will  not  buy  an  ounce  of  con- 
tentment; its  purchasing  power  ceases 
where  happiness  is  concerned.  These 
statements  are  platitudes,  of  course,  but 
it  is  well,  once  in  awhile,  to  shake  a 
live  and  wiggling  platitude  in  the  face  of 
the  public,  if  only  to  reassure  some  of 
the  hopeless  ones  that  God  is  in  His 
world,  and  all  is  well."— Nashville  Ban- 
ner. 


Government  by  Executions. 

One  man,  Tolstoy,  by  tiic  sliccr  force 
of  his  intellect,  has  made  the  Russian 
Government  fear  him.  Old  and  broken 
with  sorrow,  he  still  loves  the  Czar's 
country  as  if  it  were  his  own,  and  he 
still  dares  to  tell  the  handful  of  blood- 
thirsty aristocrats  that  rule  it  that  they 
are  as  surely  bringing  ruin  on  them- 
selves as  did  Louis  in  France. 


SAY  OF  OTHER  EDITORS 


499 


After  crying  out  against  government 
by    executions   Tolstoy  writes: 

"AH  this  is  carefully  arranged  and 
planned  by  the  learned  and  enlightened 
people  of  the  upper  class.  They  arrange 
to  do  these  things  secretly  at  daybreak, 
and  they  so  subdivide  the  responsibility 
for  these  iniquities  among  those  who 
commit  them  that  each  may  disclaim 
responsibility;  and  not  these  dreadful 
things  alone  are  done,  but  all  sorts  of 
other  tortures  and  violence  arc  perpe- 
trated in  the  prisons,  fortresses  and  con- 
vict establishments;  not  impulsively  un- 
der the  sway  of  feelings  silencing  rea- 
son, as  happens  in  fights  or  in  war,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  at  the  demand  of  rea- 
son  and   calculation,   silencing  feeling. 

What  is  most  dreadful  in  the  whole 
matter  of  this  inhuman  violence  and  kill- 
ing, besides  the  direct  evil  to  the  vic- 
tims, is  that  it  brings  yet  more  enor- 
mous evil  on  the  whole  people  by 
spreading  depravity  among  every  class 
of  Russians." 

Tolstoy  refers  to  the  shocking  spread 
of  greed  among  ruffians  to  obtain  mon- 
ey by  executing  condemned  prisoners, 
and  says: 

"Awful  as  are  the  deeds  themselves, 
the  moral  and  spiritual  unseen  evil  they 
produce  is   incomparably  more   terrible." 

For  this  Tolstoy  will  probably  be  put 
in  prison  or  worse.  The  Czar's  advisers 
fear  him,  and  fear  is  the  most  merciless 
of  emotions. 

But  wreaking  vengeance  on  Tolstoy 
will  only  hasten  the  day  when  the  Rus- 
sian Government  will  be  overthrown  by 
the  Russian  people.  Were  the  Grand 
Dukes  wise  enough  to  listen  to  the  aged 
sage  they  might  at  least  save  their  own 
necks  before  their  oppression  and  mas- 
sacres are  carried  beyond  the  point  of 
endurance. — New  York  American. 


An  Inspiring  Picture. 

Cryan  and   Murphy  were  photograph- 


ed at  Fairvievv  holding  hands.  How 
touching;  how  tenderly  and  beautifully 
svntimental! 

Let  your  imagination  dwell  upon  the 
picture  for  a  moment.  Bryan  the  he- 
roic and  devoted  platitudinist,  the  man 
of  noble  ideals  and  moral  earnestness; 
the  orator  of  Chautauquas,  whereat  he 
holds  up  to  applauding  multitudes  all 
the  virtues  and  instills  deep  lessons  of 
piety  and  rectitude;  Murphy,  the  stal- 
wart and  incorruptible,  the  clean,  honest 
leader  of  that  patriotic  organization 
known  as  Tammany,  whose  unselfish 
loyalty  to  the  cause  of  all  that  is  true 
and  worthy  in  politics  has  been  a  prov- 
erb in  the  nation,  lo  these  many  years. 

Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  when 
these  two  men  clasped  hands  before  the 
camera  the  assembled  crowd  of  specta- 
tors shouted  "Do  you  mean  it?" 

The  people  were  amazed  to  contem- • 
plate  the  union  of  two  such  tremendous 
moral  forces.  The  combination  is  full 
of  promise  for  the  country.  Murphy  and 
Bryan  wedded  in  effort  and  influence 
means  an  uplift  to  righteousness  such 
as  the  world  has  never  seen. 

And  "Fingy"  Conners  was  there.  He 
did  not  get  in  the  picture.  It  may  have 
been  feared  that  the  camera  could  not 
stand  such  a  corner  on  goodness  as  the 
trio  would  have  represented.  But  Con- 
ners was  on  the  spot,  and  he,  too,  was 
filled  with  promise.  He  promised  New 
York  to  Bryan.  Of  course,  Mr.  Con- 
ners and  his  friend,  Mr.  Murphy,  be- 
lieve that  they  carry  New  York  in  their 
vest  pocket.  It  is  theirs  to  deliver  to 
whomsoever  they  please.  Their  long 
records  of  public  service,  given  with  so 
much  of  personal  sacrifice  have  won  the 
worship  of  the  Empire  State.  It  lies  at 
their  feet  awaiting  disposal. 

All  hail  to  Bryan,  Conners  and  Mur- 
phy— these  three  abide  in  the  Democra- 
cy, and  the  greatest  of  these  is  Murphy. 
— Louisville  Herald. 


LETTERS    FROCD 
THE       PEOPLE. 


THOS  LWATSON.  AUTHOR  (F| 


RURAL  n?EE  DELIVERY. 


Mr.   Watson: — ■ 

I  want  to  ask  you  a  question.  Is  there 
any  reason  in  the  reply  that  "The  coun- 
try is  not  for  such  and  such  a  reform" — - 
which  is  monotonously  made — always^ 
against  certain  proposed  measures? 

I  notice  that  you  are  often  kind 
enough  to  answer  directly  questions 
asked  of  you  for  many  little  fellows  over 
the  country  and  I  would  be  glad  that 
you  express  your  opinion  on  the  above 
in  your  weekly  at  your  first  opportunity. 

Say,— if  a  thing  is  right  why  talk 
about  the  country  not  being  "ready"  for 
a    change? 

If  government  ownership  and  control 
of  railways  is  right,  just  what  is  meant 
by  the  statement  that  the  country  is  not 
ready  for  the  government  to  own  and 
control  its  railways? 

Only  one  answer  that  I  see  can  be 
made  to  this  above  question:  The  peo- 
ple as  a  whole  are  not  in  favor  of  such 
and  such  a  reform.  Well,  if  the  people 
as  a  whole  are  not  in  favor  of  it,  they 
will  not  make  it  a  reality.  But  nobody 
is  trying  to  force  government  ownership 
and  control  on  the  people  without  their 
consent.  On  the-  other  hand  the  only 
method  by  which  government  ownership 
and  control  would  come  about  would 
be  for  the  candidate — under  our  form  of 
government — to  go  before  the  people  and 
ask  them  if  they  are  ready  for  it,  in 
other  words,  get  their  consent.  It  is  no 
argument,  as  I  see  it,  against  this  meas- 
ure, to  say  that  the  people  are  not  ready 
for  it,  because  it  is,  of  course,  under- 
stood that  the  people  will  be  ready  for  it 
when  it  comes  about,  or  else  they  won't 
put  a  man  in  office  who  favors  it. 


If  there  is  a  shadow  of  a  possibility 
that  a  certain  reform,  which,  if  made 
law,  would  mean  millions  saved  to  the 
people  and  numberless  blessings  would 
come  to  them  as  a  result,  where  docs 
the  argument  come  in  that  the  people 
are  not  ready  for  this  saving  and  these 
blessings? 

This  monotonous  slang  about  the  peo- 
ple not  being  ready  for  the  change  is 
the  only  answer  I  generally  hear  to  your 
reasons  for  government  ownership  and 
control.  It  seems  to  me  like  reasoning 
in  a  circle — you  get  right  back  to  the 
point  from  which  you  started. 

These  thoughts  come,  it  is  true, 
through  my  mind  with  rather  a  dull 
glow,  but  I  decided  to  put  them  on  pa- 
per before  they  could  "break  through 
language  and  escape,"  as  our  friend. 
Browning,  insists.  If  you  can  drop  us 
out  a  line  or  two  on  the  above  matter 
the  favor  will  be  appreciated. 
Your  friend. 

Van   Wilhile. 

Jackson,  Ga. 

P.  S. — Did  Rockefeller  ever  pay  that 
$29,000,000  fine? 

For  publication  if  you  desire  it. 

(The  fine  has  never  been  paid.  In 
fact,  the  Attorney-General,  Bonaparte, 
has  practically  called  off  the  dogs  in  the 
great  spectacular  Octopus  chase.) 


July   13,   1908. 
Dear  Sir:— 

Although  I  am  not  an  American  but 
an  Englishman,  may  I  be  permitted  to 
offer  you  my  congratulations  on  your 
able  speech  as  quoted  in  the  Atlanta 
Constitution? 


LETTERS  FROM  THE  PEOPLE 


501 


I  was  impressed  wi  h  the  remarks 
made  in  tluit  speech,  and  fearing  it  might 
not  be  fully  reported  to  London,  I  have 
sent  a  copy,  together  with  a  letter,  to 
one  of  the  chief  London  papers,  with 
which  for  a  short  while  I  was  connected. 
It  is  the  most  important  Free  Trade  pa- 
per in  England  to  which  I   refer. 

Since  coming  to  the  States  I  have 
made  it  a  special  duty  of  looking  into 
and  studying  and  criticising  the  condi- 
tions under  which  the  people  live  and 
are  governed,  and  I  more  than  fully 
concur  with  you.  Your  views  entirely 
coincide  with  my  own. 

Nature  has  given  unlimited  gifts  to 
every  American  citizen  which  are  rights 
of  his  by  nature,  yet  these  gifts  unlimited 
though  they  be  are  limited  by  the  multi- 
millionaires and  trusts.  The  direct  ef- 
fect of  which  is  that  there  are  hardships 


now  to  be  endured  by  so  many  citizens 
who  should  be  living  comfortably. 

The  "Almighty  Dollar"  has  certainly 
more  power  in  this  country  than  it 
should  have,  and  until  graft  is  curbed  to 
a  very  large  degree  this  state  of  things 
is  bound  to  continue. 

Altho'  I  am  sorry  to  think  that  you 
have  small  chance  of  success  I  venture 
to  express  the  hope  that  you  may  one 
day  fill  the  PresidentiaF  Chair.  It  is 
only  men  of  your  calibre  who  can  put 
matters  right.  I  have  been  living  up 
North  and  only  lately  come  South  and 
yours  is  the  first  speech  I  have  read 
which  I  can  at  all  compare  as  a  states- 
man's-like  one.  You  certainly  deserve 
every  vote  coming  to  you  and  also  those 
cast  for  the  other  two  candidates. 
Your  well   wisher, 

H.   G. 


"Defense;  of  the  Mecklenburg  De- 
claration OF  Independence,"  by  James 
H.  Moore.  157  pages;  si. 50  net.  Post- 
age 12  cents.  Published  by  Edwards  & 
Hroughton  Printing  Co.,  Raleigh,  N.  C. 
Stone  &  Barringer  Co.,  Charlotte,  N.  C, 
Sales  Agents. 

This  is  a  valuable  analytical  study 
of  the  Mecklenburg  event,  dealing  only 
with  the  known  and  undisputed  records 
and  facts  in  the  case.  The  author  takes 
up  among  other  things,  Wm.  Henry 
Hoyt's  recent  work,  and  punctures  his 
labored  efforts  to  make  the  facts  and 
records  apply  to  the  May  31st  Resolves 
instead  of  the  May  20th  Declaration  as 
the  chief  paper  with  an  ease  and  con- 
clusiveness that  is  refreshing.  The  story 
of  the  Declaration  evolved  is  so  clear 
and  simple  that  one  wonders  how  the 
facts  could  have  been  misrepresented 
and   confused   in  the   public  mind. 

The  chapter  dealing  with  the  "Inter- 
nal Evidences  of  the  May  31st  Re- 
solves" is  a  masterly  one,  showing  on 
the  face  of  this  paper  that  it  was  writ- 
ten by  a  practicing  lawyer  and  not  by 
Dr.  Ephraim  Brevard,  the  admitted  au- 
thor of  the  Declaration.  Also  show- 
ing on  its  face  that  it  recognized  and 
described  the  "Convention"  and  the 
"Committee"  as  separate  and  distinct 
bodies,    thus    exploding   the    theory    that 


these  bodies  were  one  and  the  same,  on 
which  the  opponents  of  the  Declaration 
rely  for  substantiating  their  claim  that 
the  May  31st  Resolves  is  the  "true  Dec- 
laration." 

In  the  chapter  on  "Plagarism,"  and 
that  on  the  "Internal  Evidences  of  the 
May  20th  Declaration,"  Mr.  Moore 
shows  by  abundant  and  repeated  specific 
citations  and  quotations  that  in  every 
instance  in  which  similar  phrases  occur 
in  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration,  and  in 
Mr.  Jefferson's  Declaration,  that  the 
phrase  was  not  original  with  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson, but  had  been  used  not  alone  in 
the  Mecklenburg  Declaration,  but  in 
other  state  papers  in  North  Carolina  and 
elsewhere  before  Mr.  Jeflferson  wrote 
the    National    Declaration. 

The  charge  of  "Inconsistency"  in  the 
course  pursued  by  the  Mecklenburgers 
disappears  in  the  light  of  the  inside  his- 
tory of  the  time  and  of  their  environ- 
ments. John  McKnitt  Ale.xander's  au- 
tograph rough  notes,  long  neglected, 
are  shown  to  square  in  every  particular 
with  the  truth  as  verified  by  history  and 
subsequent  disclosures.  The  study  of 
the  verbiage  of  the  May  20th  Declara- 
tion showing  the  coincidence  of  its  lan- 
guage with  the  sentiment  and  verbiage 
peculiar  to  the  year  1775  is  so  curious 
and  striking  as  to  preclude  the  hypo- 
thesis of  the  opponents  of  the  Declara- 
tion that  it  was  the  work  of  some  cheap 
forger  of  1800.     It  is  shown  to  breathe 


BOOK  REVIEWS 


503 


throughout  the  spirit  and  bear  the  ver- 
bal earmarks  of  Ephraim  Brevard,  mak- 
ing selt-e\ident  the  absurdity  of  attrib- 
uting it  to  the  forgery  of  another  a 
quarter  of  a  century  nearly  after  his 
death. 

The  Davie  copy  of  the  Declaration  is 
shown  by  the  most  positive  and  abun- 
dant record  evidence  to  have  been  in 
the  handwriting  of  John  McKnitt  Alex- 
ander, disposing  of  the  charge  that  this 
copy  was  not  authorized  by  him,  but 
was    forged    bj-   some   one. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  chapters 
of  the  book  is  that  dealing  with  the 
"Record  Evidences,"  direct  and  indirect. 
Among  the  positive  contemporaneous 
record  evidences  of  the  event  is  one 
wherein  a  neutral,  unbiased  historian 
made  a  record  of  the  event  in  a  foreign 
.tongue,  which  was  buried  in  the  arch- 
ives of  the  Moravians  at  Bethania,  N. 
C,  in  1783,  and  was  not  brought  to 
light  again  until  1904,  being  literally 
the  testimony  of  one  rising  from  the 
dead. 

The  affidavits  of  the  surviving  wit- 
nesses who  testified  to  the  event  from 
memory,  after  forty  or  fifty  years  when 
the  Declaration  was  first  disputed,  and 
whose  testimony  has  been  attempted  to 
be  discredited,  are  shown  to  have  been 
corroborated  by  subsequent  discoveries 
and  to  have  clearly  accounted  for  the 
]\Iay  31st  Resolves  as  the  code  of  laws 
enacted  by  the  Committee  of  Public 
Safety  for  the  government  of  the  coun- 
ty subsequent  to  the  action  of  the  Con- 
vention declaring  independence. 

Mr.  Moore  presents  the  case  so  clear- 
ly for  the  Declaration;  he  builds  it  up  so 
solidly  on  the  substructure  of  contem- 
poraneous record  evidence  and  the  oral 
testimony  of  reputable  eye-witnesses, 
and  cements  it  so  completely  with  the 
collateral  facts  and  inside  history  of  the 
times,  explaining  all  the  discrepancies 
that  the  enemies  of  the  Declaration  have 
brought  to  bear,  as  to  establish  the 
truth  of  the  event  beyond  the  power  of 
critics  to  shake  it. 


"When  thk  Bugle  Called,"  by  Edith 


Tatum.     (The  Neale  Publishing  Co.,  I'-lat- 
iron  Building,  New  York  City.) 

This  is  a  story  of  the  women's  side 
of  war,  told  in  a  simple  way,  as  one 
might  talk  of  such  things;  and  dramatic, 
through    its    simplicity. 

The  everyday  life  of  a  Southern  plan- 
tation— the  sweet  order  of  it — the  home, 
left  in  charge  of  the  children  and  the 
faithful  black  mammy,  while  the  men 
ride  away  to  the  war, — are  pictures,  lov- 
ingly drawn,  ,  that  stand  out  in  sharp 
distinction  to  the  brutality  of  the  Fed- 
eral troops,  as  they  march  through  the 
pleasant  country,  spreading  fear  before 
them  and  leaving  ruin  behind.  The 
dark  shadow  of  an  uprising  of  the 
worthless  negroes  hangs  over  the  help- 
less children;  and,  while  the  mutterings 
of  the  coming  storm  are  heard,  a  bolt 
falls  suddenly.  Michael  Cavanagh,  who 
had  come  to  the  Dupre  plantation  to 
see  Dahlia,  the  girl  he  loved,  is  ,  cap- 
tured within  the  Federal  lines,  and  sen- 
tenced to  be  hanged  as  a  rebel  spy. 
Dahlia,  a  child  in  years,  finds  entrance 
to  the  Union  camp,  disguised  as  a  coun- 
try "cracker,"  with  a  deformed  negro 
as  her  attendant.  They  dance  and  sing, 
and  the  soldiers,  wild  with  delight, 
stamp  and  cheer.  In  the  midst  of  the 
uproar   the  prisoner  escapes. 

The  horrible  fear — the  black  shape — 
creeps  closer.  The  incidents  of  the  ne- 
gro uprising,  told  so  simply  and  quietly, 
are  terribly  vivid.  Again,  Dahlia  is  the 
one  who  brings  help  in  their  sore  need. 
She  rides  away,  through  darkness  and 
storm,  past  the  haunted  hollow,  where 
the  children,  in  daylight  walked  a-tip- 
toe, — and  so  to  the  good  old  priest's 
house.  There  she  finds  her  father  and 
the  others,  resting  for  a  few  minutes, 
on  their  way  home  from  the  war.  They 
mount  and  gallop,  and  are  just  in  time. 
The  old  negro  mammy  has  fought  va- 
liantly for  her  master's  children,  against 
the   worthless,   drink-crazed   brutes. 

And  the  story  ends,  as  all  good  stor- 
ies should,  in  the  old,  time-hallowed 
fashion, — the  fashion  that  makes  life 
possible  and  worth  the  living  to  us  all. 

J.  L. 


504 


WATSON\S  JEFFERSONIAN  MAGAZINE 


'•Mr.  Crewe's  Career,"  b,v  Winston 
Churchill.  McMillan  Company.  New 
York,  Publishers.      (Price  51.50.) 

We  consider  this  by  far  the  best  work 
that  the  author  of  Richard  Carvel  has 
done.  The  leading  characters  in  the 
book  are  men  and  women  whom  most 
of  us  have  known.  TTie  local  political 
boss,  the  railroad  politician  who  manip- 
ulates legislatures,  the  railroad  president 
who  believes  that  all  means  are  justifia- 
ble when  the  end  is  the  upbuilding  of 
his  corporation,  the  railroad  lawyer  who 
is  a  man  of  spotless  personal  character, 
but  sees  nothing  wrong  in  the  use  of 
bribes,  direct  and  indirect,  to  accomplish 
his  purpose. 

The  railroad  lawyer  has  a  son  who  is 
considered  "wild,  "  and  who  is  conse- 
quently more  popular  than  any  of  the 
Sabbath-school  models.  This  son  is 
more  like  his  mother  than  his  father — 
but  his  mother  died  early,  of  a  broken 
heart,  there  being  no  congeniality  be- 
tween the  husband  and  wife. 

The  son  goes  West,  grows  physicalli' 
and  mentally  into  a  stalwart,  healthy, 
altogether  admirable  manhood,  has  the 
inevitable  Western  "scrape,"'  "shoots  him 
a  man,"'  and  finds  it  convenient  to  return 
home. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  that  the  railroad 

president    had    a    daughter    who  was    as 

different  from  her  father  as  the  railroad 
lawyer"s  son  was  from  his  dad. 

The  story^  pivots  upon  this  happj-  co- 
incidence. 

With  great  industry,  ability  and  detail, 
Mr.  Churchill  shows  how  political  ma- 
chines work,  how  corporations  control 
States  and  how  they  can  be  attacked 
and  defended. 

Mr.  Crewe  is  drawn  to  the  life,  faith- 
fully,  vividly    and    entertainingly. 

He  is  the  unconscious  vulgarian  of 
sudden  wealth,  the  man  who  measures 
all  things  with  money.  Possessed  of 
boundless  energy,  pluck  and  a  fair  share 
of  a  certain  sort  of  ability,  he  also  fan- 
cies  that   he   is   inspired  by   good   inten- 


tions and  he  sails  into  politics  to  reform 
things  generall>. 

The  story  of  his  "Career"'  is  mighty 
good   reading. 

In  the  long  run.  Mr.  Crewe  doesn't 
get  what  he  went  after,  but  the  railroad 
lawyer's  son — who  has  fought  the  rail- 
road all  along — gets  the  railroad  presi- 
dent"s  daughter,  who  has,  as  per  imme- 
morial precedent,  found  her  lover"s  argu- 
ments more  convincing  than  those  of 
her  sire. 

Beside  its  interest  as  a  work  of  fiction, 
"Mr.  Crewe"s  Career"'  possesses  decided 
permanent  value  as  an  exposure  of  the 
rotten  methods  used  by  corporations  to 
control   the  government. 


"The  Gospel  of  Greed  or  the  Spirit 
OF  Commercialism,"  by  Charles  H. 
McDerniott. 

A  common-sense  explanation  of  Social 
and  Political  Problems  from  a  business 
point  of  view,  showing -reasons  for  pres- 
ent conditions  as  compared  with  changes 
proposed  bj^  theorists  and  would-be  Re- 
formers. 

The  principles  of  wealth  production 
clearly  set  forth  with  the  exact  position 
of  labor  as  a  factor. 

How  all  the  progress  of  civilization 
and  benefit  for  humanity  come  from  the 
work  of  individuals  seeking  profits,  and 
why  any  policy  of  repression  must  be 
injurious   or   ruinous. 

The  theories  and  promises  of  Social- 
ism considered  in  a  practical  way  with 
the  results  that  must  follow  from  the 
plans  advocated.  Some  of  the  absurdi- 
ties and  contradictions  of  the  Socialistic 
ideas. 

The  Railroads,  the  Trusts,  the  larifF. 
Single  Tax  and  Banking  considered  with 
reference  to  the  basic  principles  that 
must   control. 

Commonplace  facts  usually  overlooked 
or  ignored  may  appear  sensational  when 
presented  with  their  full  significance  for 
affecting  results  or  overturning  fa-\ciful 
theories. 


BOOK   REVIEWS. 


505 


The  author,  Charles  H.  McDermott, 
with  an  experience  of  thirty-seven  years 
in  daily  and  trade  journalism,  and  for 
twenty-four  years  editor  of  the  Boot  and 
Shoe  Recorder,  Boston,  Mass.,  is  well 
qualified  to  speak  for  Commercialism 
and  the  forces  that  work  for  industrial 
progress. 

The  principles  that  all  should  under- 
stand and  that  are  of  practical  value 
for   all. 

Concise  and  condensed  so  that  every 
chapter   suggests  a  volume. 

Price  $1.00.  Chappie  Publishing  Co., 
Boston. 


"A  Little Laxd  AND  A  Living,"  by  Bol- 
ton Hall,"  The  Arcade  Press,  New  York, 
shows  how  big  results  may  be  obtained 
from  farms  scarcely  larger  than  a  small 
yard.  It  tells  what  intensive  farming  is 
and  can  accomplish  and  is  a  bright  shaft 
of  light  piercing  the  gloom  of  that  an- 
cient error  that  the  people  grow  faster 
than  their  food  suppl^^  In  a  very  prac- 
tical way  it  shows  how  the  difficulties 
confronting  those  inclined  to  return  to 
the  soil  may  be  overcome  and  is  alto- 
gether along  the  lines  of  wholesome  and 
constructive  thought. 


We      acknowledge      receipt  of        "A 

Heathen    Dollar,"    by    Jos.     A.  Diefifen- 

bacher.    published    by    the    W.  B.    Con- 
key  Co. 


Clearly  and  concisely  put  is  the  infor- 
mation contained  in  "Government  by  the 
People,"'  a  little  book  by  Robt.  H.  Ful- 
ler, which  is  a  brief,  unbiased  survey  of 
election  laws,  political  platforms,  etc. 
It  should  be  of  interest  to  the  citizen 
who  "inquires  to  know."  Publishers, 
TTie   McMillan   Co.,    Xew   York. 


"Elements  OF  Agriculture,"  by  W.  C. 
Welborn,  issued  by  the  Mc^Iillan  Com- 
pany, is  just  what  its  name  implies  and 
should  be  of  value  as  a  text  in  rural 
schools.      Price   75c. 


'The  Liberators,"  by  Isaac  N.  Stevens, 
B.  W,  Dodge  &  Co. 

This  is   a  political   romance   treated   in 


an  unusually  pleasing  manner.  It  is  de- 
velop, ed  along  psychological  lines  and 
perhaps  the  most  striking  feature  of  the 
book  is  the  influence  of  studious,  think- 
ing, but  altogether  winsome  women,  in 
bringing  to  pass  a  peaceful  revolution. 

George  Randolph,  the  hero — perhap:; 
we  had  better  say  one  of  the  heroes,  is 
a  Southern  of  the  type  we  all  love.  Pos- 
sessed of  incorruptible  soul  and  filled 
with  patriotic  zeal,  he  early  consecrates 
himself  to  the  cause  of  the  people.  His 
class-mate  in  college  is  Frederick  Ames, 
a  young  millionaire,  son  of  a  railway 
magnate.  Of  equal  strength  of  charac- 
ter and  brilliance  of  intellect,  but  differ- 
ing widely  as  the  poles  in  political  senti- 
ments, the  two  men  form  a  strong  and 
deep  attachment  for  each  other. 

There  is  a  very  clear  picture  drawn  of 
modern  legislative  methods  and  of  po- 
litical machinery  of  all  sorts.  George 
Randolph  finally  becomes  head  of  the 
"People's  Alliance"  after  eating  the  bit- 
ter bread  of  persecution  at  the  hands  of 
powerful  corporations.  Of  course,  he 
has  fallen  in  love  with  Frederick  Ames' 
sister  and  equally  of  course  the  elder 
Ames  will  have  none  of  it. 

An  unusual  character  depicted  is  that 
of  a  ^Irs.  Strong,  a  wealthy  young  wid- 
ow, who  has  devoted  herself  to  a  study 
of  sociology  and  political  economy  and 
who  gives  herself  and  her  money  freely 
to  the  cause  of  the  "Alliance." 

Just  at  the  moment  in  the  book  when 
we  expect  the  intensity  of  public  feeling 
to  express  itself  in  a  crash  of  arms — Lo, 
Frederick  Ames  makes  a  splendid  sur- 
render and  the  victory  is  won. 

The  little  love  stories  which  are  deli- 
cately traced  throughout  the  tale  add 
too  much  to  its  charm,  but  the  principal 
theme  is  the  advocacy  of  government 
ownership  of  railroads. 

In  the  book  the  author  takes  a  fling  at 
Mr.  Bryan  when  he  speaks  of  the  return 
of  the  "Peerless  One"  from  abroad  and 
his  great  speech  at  Madison  Square 
Garden  on  government  ownership — then 
practically,  as  Mr.  Stevens  puts  it,  Mr. 
Bryan  retracted  his  argument  for  politi- 
cal ends. 


506 


WATSON'S  JEFFERSONIAN  MAGAZINE 


BOOKS  RECEIVED 

(Reviews  will  be  made  later) 


History  of  the  Laurel  Brigade,  origi- 
nally Ashby's   Cavalry. 

By  the  late  Capt.  Wm.  N.  McDonald, 
edited  by  Bushrod  C.  Washington.  Pub- 
lished by  Mrs.  Kate  S.  McDonald. 

Probably  the  best  "record  of  the  Reg- 
iment" ever  comp-led.  Takes  the  readers 
through  all  the  stirring  scenes  in  "the 
Valley,"  and  is  a  most  illuminating  side- 
light thrown  upon  the  great  IMilitary 
Movements  in  Virginia. 

Alexander  H.  Stephens.  By  Louis 
Pendleton.  Geo.  W.  Jacobs  &  Co.,  Phil- 
adelphia, publishers. 


Altogether  the  best  biography  of  Mr. 
Stephens  that  has  j'et  appeared.  Tem- 
perate in  tone,  thorough  in  its  treatment, 
judicial  in  its  judgment,  Mr.  Pendle- 
ton's book  is  in  every  way  worthy  of  his 
subject  and  creditable  to  himself. 

Norton  Hardin,  or  The  Knight  of  the 
Twentieth  Century.  By  Mrs.  Minnye 
Creighton  Cottrell.  Mayhew  Pub.  Co., 
Boston. 

A  story  in  w^hich  a  gifted  woman  of 
today  idealizes  her  own  conception  of 
true  manhood,  and  sends  it  forth  into  the 
sordid  conditions  that  surround  to  do 
battle  for  better  standards. 


AT  NIGHT 


No    star-beam    trembles    down    the    skies,  , 

The  moon  withholds  her  light; 

The  velvet  hand  of  Night 

Is  laid  upon  the  weary  eyes. 

While  the  vexed  soul  is  folded  calm 

Beneath  the  brooding  wings  of  Dark; 

And  blessed  Silence,  passing  fleet. 

Leaves  on  the  trail  of  silvery  feet 

Soft  winds  of  odorous  balm 

And  distant  sweet  Eolian  strains. 

Those  evanescent  lost  refrains  ^ 

Forever   wandering   on   the   air 

To  find   the   heart   in   waiting   there. 

— Mary  Chapin   Smith. 


WATSON  BOOKS 


story  of  France,  VJ/ye%"§:  =  $3.50 

Napoleon         =         =  =1.75 

Life  and  Times  of 

T/iomas  Jefferson  =     1.75 


f->       J.tm  ^   Study  of  the   Causes   of  the  Civil  War  *    ^  mm 

i3  QT.l\^T\  V        and  a  love  story  of  a  Confederate  Volunteer.  im^  ^S 


In  the  Story  of  France  you  will  find  a  history  of  Chivalry,  of  the 
Crusades,  of  Joan  of  Arc,  of  the  Ancien  Reg-ime,  of  the  French 
Revolution. 

In  the  Life  of  Jefferson  you  will  learn  what  democratic  principles 
are,  and  you  will  learn  much  history,  to  the  credit  of  the  South  and 
West,  which  the  New  England  writers  left  out. 


BOTTLED   SUNSHINE 

THE  PERFECT  LIGHT 


THE  BECK-IDEN  LAMP 


Turns  off  and  on  like  City  Gas  It 
burns  Gas,  which  it  makes  automat- 
ically, as  needed  ;  15  times  as  bright 
as  City  Gas,  3  times  as  bright  as 
Electricity. 

NO  HEAT      NO  CHIMNEYS 
NO  DIRT       NO  WICKS 
NO  ODOR     NO  MANTLES 
NO  SMOKE  NO  VARIATION 

A  perfect  while  light  like  sunlight. 
Does  not  tire  the  eyes.  Cost  1  c  nt 
an  hour  to  operate.     Cheaper  than  oil. 

Read    what    the    Hon.    Thos.    E. 
Watson  writes  about    this  lamp. 


PRICE.  $10.00 

THOMSON,  Ga.,  May  7th,  1907 
This  is  to  certify  that  I  have  been  using  for  several  months  the  Acetylene  Lamps 
handled  by  J.  E.  Hunnicutt  &  Co.,  of  Atlanta,  Ga.,  and  find  them  most  satisfactory. 

The  light  given  by  one  of  these  lamps  is  more  nearly  like  day  light  than  any 
known  to  me.  There  is  no  strain  upon  the  eye,  for  the  light  is  steady  and  perfectly 
white.  There  is  no  difficulty  in  keeping  the  lamps  in  order.  A  little  boy  attends  to 
my  Library  lights  for  me,  and  he  has  no  more  trouble  with  the  Acetylene  Lamps  than 
he  would  have  with  the  kerosene  lamps.  THOS.   K.  WATSON. 

Special  Offer  to  the  first  200  customers  we  will  make  this  Lamp  at  cost  price,  $7.50 

While  we  will  lose  money  on  these  200,  they  will  act  as  salesmen  for  us 

Each    lamp  sold    will    sell    us  five  more  so  that,   from  these 
200,  we   safely    count    on  orders    for    1000  at   regular    price 

This  offer  ceases  after  the  first    200  are  sold.     Send  in  your    order    now 

J.  E.  HUNNICUTT  &  CO. 

ATLANTA,  GA. 

Established  1866 

The  Largest  Mantel,  Tile,  Grate,  Gas 
and    Electric    Fixture    House,   South 


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